Tomorrow Waits for Us
by Supreme Mystic Dragon
Summary: 2 years after GT. Just as things seem to be getting back to normal, Trunks is informed of a disaster brewing that could destroy everything they've worked for. The new generation of Saiyans will have to pay a decades old debt if they hope to see tomorrow.
1. Bad news and worse news

A/N: My First Dragonball GT Story! I've re-written the beginning of this, as I did not have the required source material when I started this(in other words, I hadn't seen the final episodes at the time). Hopefully I can smooth out the inconsistancies.

After I get done editing this, expect new chapters. :)

Special thanks go to Marron Babe and the Noseless Wonder and for the inspiration for this, and LauraNeatO for encouraging me and helping me with some of the editing.

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT and this is not for profit.

**Tomorrow Waits for Us**

By Mystic Dragon

Trunks was was having a bad day.

Granted, no day in which you have to go to work is a good one, but being CEO of Capsule Corporation was providing special trials for the lavender-haired Saiyan today.

Trunks stared out his window, trying not to think about the mountain of paperwork on his desk. _Dad thinks I'm being lazy because I'm not training lately, but where am I supposed to find the time?_ He shuddered at the harsh tone and unforgiving eyes that Vegeta was famous for.

_"What will you do if something happens?" _The Phantom Vegeta scolded him in his head._ "A true warrior stays fit and ready, even in times of peace." _He could picture his dad, scowling. _"I can't believe that Kakarot's short tempered granddaughter seems to have more fighting spirit than you!"_

Trunks smiled as he thought of Pan beating Goten in the World Martial Arts Tournament ten years after the fight with Majin Buu. _Goten had really let himself go,_ Trunks smirked to himself. _It's hard to believe that we almost beat Buu when we fused into Gotenks._ He remembered how much fun it had been to get the best of the irritable pink demon with their super-ghost kamikaze-attack, but he still had nightmares about those inhuman ruby-colored eyes.

He stared back at the paperwork in distaste. _Why is it that I put all of that effort into getting this place to run itself, and I still end up with all of this to do?_ He looked away from the mess on his desk, and gazed out his window again. _Maybe this is a good time to go and train._ He frowned to himself as he considered the nearly perfect conditions outside. It was too nice a day to be training in Vegeta's stuffy gravity capsule. He brightened when he remembered that an off-hand comment to his mom about that exact problem had gotten her to put her thinking cap on a few weeks ago. _She should be about done with the outdoor training area. I'll go see her and find out._

Trunks hit the intercom button. "Stacy?"

"Yes, sir?" Came the polite voice of his personal secretary.

"I'm leaving in the next half hour. Let the Department Managers know that if they have anything important that requires my attention, they need to come see me."

He could hear a sigh on the other end. "Yes, sir. Would you like me to have someone process the paperwork you have left?"

Trunks groaned inwardly. He knew that Stacy hated when he left early, but what did she expect? He'd been trapped in his office for the last ten days. He reminded himself not to be harsh with her, as Stacy had been putting in a lot of extra time herself.

"Yes, that would be great," he said, ignoring her displeased tone. He glanced at a clock on one of his bookshelves. It was just after eleven. "And Stacy..."

There was a cautious pause at the other end. "Yes, sir?"

"Feel free to go to lunch after you're done calling them."

There was another sigh at the end of the intercom, but this one was of relief. "Thank you, sir."

Trunks leaned back in his chair, now safely able to dismiss the monumental pile of paperwork from his mind. He took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose. _It's amazing how things change,_ he thought to himself. His Grandfather had run Capsule Corp. before him, but he had mostly spent his time inventing things and had others manage the company. The monopoly on the capsule technology had insured an insane income each year.

Since Trunks had taken over, he'd restructured the company and hired trustworthy and hard-working department heads. That had worked well in the beginning, but because of the damage wrought by Super 17 and the Shadow Dragons, Capsule Corp's mission had changed drastically. Most of the company's resources had been funneled into rebuilding West City's public services, and as a result, Trunks and Capule Corp. were now the functional government for most of the western continent. Trunks found that the infrastructure he'd built after Bebi's reign of terror was working well for reorganizing the earth, but even so many items required his personal attention. He sometimes wondered when he would be able to get a handle on it all.

_Some people would be thrilled to rule half the world, but I'd rather the King and his government take over again._ Trunks grimaced, knowing that it wasn't that simple. If he gave over control of the western continent to the King, Capsule Corp was finished. The previous government had no assets on the order required to adequately compensate Capsule Corp for the work they'd done. The Briefs family was now the unwilling heir to half of the world. On top of that, Trunk figured that it was only a matter of time before the Eastern Continent's government failed.

Trunks put his hands over his face, and yawned in exhaustion. _We'll cross that bridge when we get there,_ he thought melancholically.

His stomach rumbled unpleasantly at him. His work day had started at six, and he'd only had a cup of coffee and a bagel for breakfast. His Saiyan metabolism really bugged him, sometimes. _I'll have lunch before I train. Wait, it's Sunday. Mom should still have brunch going on._ His thoughts whirled, visions of omelets, blueberry pancakes and bacon flowed pleasantly before his eyes.

There was a sharp knock at his door. "Mr. Briefs?" Came a deceptively lazy voice in a light southern drawl. "Can you spare a moment of your time?"

Trunks frowned at the door and put his glasses back on. _What would Branford be doing here?_ Branford Hughes was the Head of Research and Development for Capsule Corp's main operations. The slightly chubby and amiable looking man only looked and sounded like a country bumpkin. He was one of the shrewdest men Trunks knew, running R&D as if it was the easiest thing in the world. None of the research projects had been stolen since Trunks had hired him, and of his department heads, Trunks saw him the least regarding problems. The fine hairs on his neck stood up.

"Of course, Branford. Come in," Trunks said smoothly, walking around the untidy stacks of paperwork on his desk. "Is Stacy out there?"

"She is," Stacy responded tartly from around the corner.

Trunks smirked at her tone. Stacy was the best secretary he'd had so far, but you had to put up with her attitude sometimes. "Stacy, be a nice girl and go pick up a latte for me and a double expresso for Branford," Trunks said in a slightly mocking tone.

He could almost see her sticking her tongue out at him. "Of course, sir," she said in a falsely neutral tone.

Trunks casually closed the door, and pointed to one of the free chairs in the office. Branford sat down with a deceptive casualness, and Trunks merely leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, unconsciously mirroring Vegeta's usually pose. "I take it this isn't something that I want to hear about?" Trunks said flatly.

Branford dropped his folksy act. "Marron's team had a breakthrough."

Trunks looked at him in shock. Krillin and 18's daughter had grown up, and now led one of the R&D teams at Capsule Corp. Her team was looking into a way to travel across dimensions, at the request of his mother, Bulma. They had long since replicated the time machine that the Bulma and Trunks of the android future had used, however the tests in future travel failed miserably. The past was relatively fixed unless someone went back to change it. The future was another story. After Cell had been defeated and the Trunks of the Future had returned to his own dimension, no one had been able to go there and check on them. His mother was worried about them, and others suggested that someone could go to that dimension and help them get a new Guardian so that the Dragonballs would return.

Trunks tried to pull himself together, but he could feel in his bones that this was going to change everything."Talk to me," Trunks said in a shaky voice.

Branford looked no less uncomfortable with the information he had. "They've created a four-dimensional energy sensor," he began "and while that doesn't sound like much, the existing time machine can use the coordinates that it generates to jump to the desired dimension."

Trunks was floored. _I know that mom wanted this, but I didn't think it was possible. Trust Marron to find a way to do it._ He smiled at Branford. "That's amazing! Marron has outdone herself!"

Branford looked at the floor, as if wrestling with a problem. "She certainly has. She was the one who tested it, so I know it works..."

The color drained from Trunk's face. "She...she used it in the time machine?"

"Yes, and that's what I'm here for." Branford looked even more unhappy, if that was possible.

Trunks slumped against the wall. _18 would kill me if she knew this._ Krillin and 18 had been happy about Marron working there in the beginning, but as she put more and more time into her projects and less into her life, they'd grown more and more upset about it. Trunks hadn't felt that it was his business, so he had encouraged her in her work, and lately had given her bonuses in the form of paid travel and gift certificates to get her out of the office occasionally.

If anything, though, she had thrown herself harder into her work. Now, apparently, she had risked her life to test something that could have landed her in another dimension permanently. _What's wrong with her! She could have done it the safe way. It wouldn't have taken **that** long._

"I'll go have a talk with her before I leave," Trunks said without enthusiasm. "Do you have anything else important scheduled for her team?"

Branford looked into space thoughtfully. "With the time machine more or less done, we don't have any more critical projects for them."

"Good. I'll put Marron on an extended vacation, but I also want her team off for the next four weeks, and their lab area sealed. I don't want any leaks about this. Can it be done?"

Branford looked a bit happier. "Of course. I already shipped the device to your mother, and I'll make sure no one has access to the work area."

"Alright. I'll go talk to Marron." Trunks paused. "What do you want to do about her?"

Branford looked uncomfortable again. "Marron is one of our best scientists, but she doesn't like playing by the rules. I would like her to stay, though, because her team is one of the most well managed that I've ever seen, and as you know, they've produced some of the most important items we have, including the prototype time machine." He shook his head. "I wish I knew what was going on in her head. Only in the last few months has she given me reason to worry."

Trunks sighed. "Don't worry about it, Branford. I'll get her out of the office for awhile, and we can decide if we need to do anything else later." He looked at the clock. "Is there anything else you need from me?"

Branford shook his head. "You may want to come test some of the new toys we've made, but nothing earth-shattering."

"Maybe I'll drop by later." Trunks went over to the window, letting his senses drift out past the door. He sighed inwardly in relief. Stacy wasn't outside his door eavesdropping for once. That was another bad habit she had, but Branford's news had been too important for him to keep tabs on her energy while they talked. He let his senses drift out further. _There she is._ He could sense her in the parking lot. Branford loved expresso, but Stacy loved latte. He considered it a form of apology for all the calls she was going to have to field for the afternoon.

"Stacy's back, so feel free to get your expresso. Tell her the latte is hers." Trunks said as he made his way to the door. "I may be off for a few days, so if you have any emergencies, talk with my mother."

Branford nodded, reassuming his role of nice little country boy. "Enjoy your time off." He said as they walked out of his office.

* * *

As Trunks walked toward R&D, he wondered what could be wrong with Marron. The brilliant blonde girl had been a ray of sunshine once, but lately she seemed withdrawn and unhappy. When Trunks had first placed her team in charge of his mother's idea, she seemed to catch fire and blaze with happiness, and that's when she started spending entire nights working on the project. 

Trunks was afraid of what he would find when he saw her. She'd been hibernating in the lab for the last few weeks. _I guess the signs were there, but I wasn't paying attention._

When he found her lab, it was suspiciously silent. None of her team were around. _Of course not. It's Sunday. Only idiots like me or her are here._ He smiled at that thought as he placed his right hand on the palm scanner. The indicator light shifted from red to green, and the heavy doors opened. He barely made a sound as he walked through the entryway into the high security lab.

He found Marron peacefully sleeping at her desk, using her left arm as a pillow. He carefully removed her glasses, which she'd forgotten to take off. There was a gentle smile on her face, and she was breathing deeply and evenly. _She's like an angel._ He thought about how cold 18's beauty was. In Marron, it was softened and warmed, like a dream vision rather than the cold reality her mother seemed to embody. _I'll come back later._

Trunks left the R&D area, heading to his living area. More than once, he'd been thankful that he'd had a place to change and shower at work. Important clients and public officials seemed to take great pleasure in "dropping in" on him. After he had showered and put on his favorite teal colored gi, he went back looking for Marron. She was awake this time, but was staring off into space.

"Marron?" Trunks said in a near whisper. He didn't want to startle her.

"Trunks...?" She said in a dreamy fashion. Her eyes were unfocused, and she seemed disoriented. She looked at him with a dreamy sort of longing, then seemed to notice something. "Oh! Hi Trunks!" She said hurriedly, looking away from him, a faint red tingeing her cheeks. "I'm sorry, I was just...well, that is...I guess my mind was somewhere else," She finished lamely.

Trunks frowned inwardly. _Why is she babbling? And what was she daydreaming about?_

"No, it's ok. I checked on you earlier, but you were asleep."

Trunks watched in amazement as she blushed harder. "I didn't mean to," she said hurriedly. "I swear, I won't slack off like that again..."

"Marron," Trunks said, firmly interrupting her apology. "Branford says _that_ isn't one of your problems. If anything, you've been working too hard." He casually sat on the edge of her desk. "I'll give you the bad news first. I'm disappointed that you risked everything to test the time machine. Did you ever consider how many unhappy people you'd be leaving behind if something went wrong?"

Marron paled at his words. Trunks couldn't tell if it was from shock or anger. Trunks continued in a low voice. "Marron, I don't know why you thought this was more important than your life, but your very existence is a miracle in more ways than one. Your mother could very well have stayed the way she was before, or she could have been infertile due to her non-human origin. My sister would have been devastated if something had gone wrong, not to mention my mom, your parents and all of Goku's family. We all love you."

Marron managed to look guilty and angry at the same time. "Like you ever notice..." he heard her whisper to herself bitterly as she looked down at her desk.

Now it was Trunks' turn to be angry, but he decided to step on his reflex to snap at her. He took a deep breath. "Marron, what's this about? You know that I care about you. We all do. A few months of tests and we would have been sure..."

Marron interrupted him in a shockingly loud voice. "It's been more than TEN YEARS since the time that the other Trunks arrived back in his own dimension!" Marron shouted, and then looked a little shocked at her outburst. She grimaced and spoke in a more normal tone. "It may be too late to help them already."

It was Trunks' turn to be shocked. "What are you talking about, Marron?"

"Majin Buu, you idiot!" She shouted at him. "Babidi showed up only eight years after Gohan beat Cell. You don't think they escaped that just because Dr. Gero's Androids were more successful there, do you?"

Trunks paled. He was by no means an expert on temporal interaction, but her theory seemed sound..._It wouldn't be possible for Babidi to awaken Buu in that timeline, would it? _He quickly considered the idea, and decided that that it was **very** possible, even likely that Marron was right. In fact, it was more than puzzling that the other Trunks had managed to jump back after the time when Babidi should have shown up.

_I have to lie to her so that she doesn't do anything else rash again until I'm ready to act. How am I ever going to convince her that there's nothing to worry about? _Trunks was digging quickly through his mind when he remembered something Gohan had told him after all the madness created by the demented wizard and his monster.

_"When the Supreme Kai and I reached the room where Majin Buu's ball was, the indicator only showed about half full of energy. While Shin and I were trying to find a way to get to Buu through Dabura and Babidi, Vegeta and my dad were fighting each other. Babidi had placed a spell on their fight so that the damage dad took would energize Buu. Before we knew it, the indicator showed that Buu had gained enough power from that fight to hatch. We never had a chance at that point. Buu had absorbed all of my power and most of dad's."_

_Perfect,_ Trunks thought to himself as he composed his features and put a false face of relief on.

"You're wrong, Marron." He let out a big sigh. "Majin Buu requires all of the energy of two Saiyans capable of Super-Saiyan Level 2 to be released from his ball. Nothing less will do. That does not exist in that dimension."

Marron looked a him sharply. "That much energy was required...?"

Trunks nodded.

Marron looked a bit sheepish. "I guess I still have some bad memories..."

Trunks looked at her reassuringly. "Don't worry about it. You aren't the only one." He paused, putting on a thoughtful expression. "You might have had a premonition, you know."

Marron looked at him sharply again. "What do you mean?"

Trunks mulled over something that had popped into his head when she had mentioned future problems. "Marron, Majin Buu may not be a threat, but what about Dr. Myuu and Bebi? What about all the evil people we stopped while hunting for the Black Star Dragonballs?"

Marron paled again. She swallowed, hard. "Trunks, what if Bebi finds the other you...?"

Trunks turned white as a sheet. His nightmares about Bebi invading his body and mind were worse than anything he dreamed about Majin Buu._ If Bebi reaches the other Trunks, that world is done for. Even so, this is the opening I need. Bebi won't be a threat for years in the future, but I can go there and deal with Buu right now, and Marron won't know enough to get herself in more trouble._ "If Bebi is there, I have to stop him!" He suddenly thought of something."Did you go there during your test flight?"

Marron unexpectedly blushed. "Yes. I set the ship at the Lookout. Mr. Popo is still there. He verified the events. The space-time detector works." Her voice turned deadly serious. "The room of spirit and time exists there. If anyone needs to train when they get there, they can."

Trunks worked hard not to give away how relieved he was. _Good thing she swallowed my bait,_ He thought to himself. _Hopefully she won't figure it out until we get there._ Trunks was still sick to his stomach at the thought of Bebi being alive there. _I can't do anything about that right now, so no use worrying at it._

Trunks decided that it was time to leave. "It's almost noon, Marron. Would you like to come to my house for brunch? I'm sure Bra will be there." He said in his smoothest manner.

Marron brightened at his words."Sure. Let me get a shower, first."

Trunks smirked at her slept in clothing and mussed hair. "Ok, just don't take all day. Oh, and Marron..."

Yes?" She called over her shoulder on the way to the shower.

"You're amazing."

She blushed. "Quit sweet talking me!"

"I'm not!" He said innocently. "This is the best gift you could give my mom. Thank you."

A peculiar, guilty look crossed her face. She rushed off without another word.

Trunks sat in her chair, staring at the room that had given birth to hope, again. _The other Bulma gave us "Hope" in the form of the time machine,_ he mused siliently. _We need to do something to help them._ He thought about his Father, the proud Saiyan Prince that he never would have known without his other self's intervention. He thought about Goku, and how empty the world felt without him since he left with Shenron. _At least he was around as much as he was. Without the other Trunks, Goku would have died of the heart sickness._ He thought about his best friend, Goten, who never existed in the other timeline. And Pan. And Marron, who's mother was a killing machine in the other timeline. The other Trunks had even saved him, from what his mom said, during one of the battles with the androids. _That's quite a debt we owe them._

_So much changed because of the other Trunks and Bulma. We've fought battles far worse than anything they ever could ever imagine, but we were allowed to live, while their world suffocated under the fists of Androids 17 and 18. They need more than hope. They need a miracle._

He remembered something Goku said to him once, when He and the child-sized Saiyan were searching for the Black Star Dragonballs. Goku had been staring into a pond, lost in thought. Trunks had asked him what he was dwelling on, since the childlike Saiyan was usually as happy-go-lucky as he could get away with unless there was some kind of serious danger.

Goku had looked at him with an unusually thoughtful expression. "Trunks, I've seen a lot of bad things in my life. I've fought monsters that made me sick with how evil they were. But I look at the pond, or I look at the sky, even on another world, and I see that the stains of evil melt away with time. Everyone talks about miracles, and gods, and angels. I've seen all of that. This is the real miracle. Evil doesn't live on. Life does."

He pointed to his chest. "The miracle is here, too." His eyes went unfocused, seeing events in the past. "Oolong, Yamcha, Chaiotzu, Tien, Piccolo, Vegeta, 18, Buu...all of them were once my enemies. The Heart is a funny thing. When you open your heart, miracles happen."

Trunks smiled, missing Goku all over again. It almost seemed like Goku had reached out from wherever he was to lend support to what Trunks wanted to do. _Thank you, Goku. You've helped me see with another set of eyes...again._

"I'm ready!" Marron shouted as she ran down the hall.

Trunks shook off his reverie. _Let's see what we can do for Marron. Then let's worry about the other problem. _"Care for a lift?" Trunks said to the freshly washed Blonde girl.

"No way, you perv! I'll fly myself there!" She said with a smile. "And get out of my chair."


	2. Who's idea was this?

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT

Tomorrow waits for Us

Chapter 2

* * *

As Trunks flew toward home, his mind drifted back to the events of the last two years. The seven Shadow Dragons had been defeated, and Goku had disappeared as payment for one last wish from Shenron. Many people thought that was the end, but for Trunks, that was the beginning of his life. 

Trunks had always had such high expectations to live up to. His mother was a genius, and his father was the uncrowned King of the Saiyans. It seemed like everyone wanted him to be both a genius, and a strong warrior. On top of that, they wanted him to be well behaved and responsible, something his parents were **definitely** not.

After the Dragonballs disappeared, Trunks felt as if a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Li Shenron had been defeated by Goku's amazing spirit bomb, formed from energy donated from almost all of the creatures in the galaxy. Trunks had felt a sense of closure, and he knew he wasn't the only one. His father, with the help of his mother's technical genius, had finally reached the pinnacle level of being a Super-Saiyan. There was a peace in Vegeta's eyes now that had been absent before.

Trunks had gone back to work at Capsule Corp. after the fateful final battle. The earth was in a state of chaos at the time, owing to the rediculous amount of distruction that the evil shenrons had caused. At times, He was sure they wouldn't survive as famine and widespread sickness killed millions.

It was during this time that Trunks remembered the damaged time machine that Cell had abandoned in his Quest for 17 and 18. At that point, he knew it was imperative to to rebuild Capsule Corp and West City, and to repair the time machine in case the restoration efforts proved futile. He'd run into stiff opposition at first, but amazingly with West City functioning again hope seemed to return to the survivors. Unbeknownst to them, Trunks had finally gotten a team working or fixing the time machine.

Marron had come to him soon after, saying that she felt left out of the recovery efforts. She'd been going to college, studying physics and psychology before the incident with Dr. Myuu and Super 17. Trunks didn't quite know what to do with her, since she hadn't taken the higher level classes required for her degree. He'd asked Branford to find a position for her, but hadn't been expecting much. Trunks knew that all of them were contributing in a small way, culminating in a large result.

To the surprise of many, Marron's prodigious skills became readily apparent.She had a different way of looking at the world, and that seemed to lend her a surreal mastery of chaotic and non-linear physics applications. In the first few days, Branford had asked, or rather begged Trunks to allow him to put her to work on restoring the time machine. Trunks had been stunned, but had readily agreed to place her on the top-secret project.

In the year and a half that she'd been there, she helped create the new time machine, a vast improvement on the design of the original. During that time, she'd shown an aptitude for managing people, and had risen to become project manager by the time the prototype had been completed. When even the new time machine had failed to be of use for anything other than travel to the past, the team went into a deep depression. The other Trunks' success with the time machine had seemed to fill them with belief that anything was possible. Hitting the hard wall of reality had been devastating.

Trunks hadn't been as upset as the scientists in R&D had been. They still had a functioning time machine, an unbelievable achievement by anyone's measure. The original time machine was stored at Capsule Corp., safe in the secure basement levels. The prototype was at his house. He had felt at the time that it was enough. They had a way to fix the past if anything went seriously wrong.

Bulma hadn't been convinced, however. She was worried that something else might have gone wrong in the alternate dimension. She'd asked Trunks to get a team working on the problem. For once, her technological genius for didn't have a ready answer to the problem of controlling where the time machine ended up. Trunks had decided that Marron's dispirited team had the best chance of success, and they seemed to regain their former spark when presented with the challenge of making the time machine work the way they wanted it to.

Trunks glanced over at Marron as they flew along. She flew with an enthusiasm that had been lacking the last few months. Her head was thrown back into the wind, and her unbound blonde hair flowed out behind her. The white dress she had changed into at Capsule Corp. brought to mind his earlier impression of her being an angel. _I wonder what's been weighing on her mind for so long._

He immediately dismissed her explanation about Babidi. While that was certainly a valid worry, the way she presented her argument suggested that she hadn't really been thinking about it for very long. _It's almost like she'd come up with that to cover for something else..._

"Hey! Earth to Trunks!" Marron shouted at him.

Trunks was startled out of his thoughts. "What, Marron?" He shouted back.

"You wanna race with me or not!" She said crossly.

He looked at her in puzzlement. "Have you been trying to get my attention?"

"Duh, genius! I'll race you to breakfast!" Her eyes reflected an eagerness to challenge him.

_She is **so** not going to beat me there. I won't even go super._ "You're on!" Trunks playfully answered her challenge. Both of them tapped into their deeper power, heat waves of energy suddenly flowing out of their bodies.

"Ready," Marron stated. "Set...**GO!**"

They both flew off at amazing speed. Marron had the advantage at first because she called the start, but Trunks was right behind her. As they flew over the peaceful country landscape, Trunks' focus narrowed significantly. He saw only what was in their path, and absently noted Marron's position. This tended to happen to him the faster he went. For him, time seemed to slow down when he moved at higher speeds, and his mind relaxed as it took in more and more information. The colors and sounds sharpened, and he fell into the movements of the world around him.

Trunks tapped deeper into his power, and surged ahead. Surprisingly, Marron surged ahead as well, and they were dead even as they blasted over the old Capsule Corp. compound. As it passed below them, they continued at sub-sonic speed, their previous goal forgotten in the need to surpass each other. Trunks glanced over a Marron, and he saw an evil glint in her eye. He was forcefully reminded of 18 at that moment, but he was no pushover, either.

As Marron blasted ahead of Trunks, the young Saiyan tapped his normal maximum and was still losing ground. _Fine! If she wants to be serious, then I won't hold back either!_ He tapped deeper into himself, and felt his skin tingling and his hair crackling with energy. His aura flared into the visible spectrum, giving turning his hair golden and his eyes green. As he tapped his Super-Saiyan power, he was suddenly moving far faster, and his world seemed to contract into a single focused instant.

As he rocketed passed Marron, she seemed to flinch, and then gained even more speed. Much to Trunks surprise, she was right beside him, again. Both glanced out of the corner of their eyes, checking the other other's position.

When he glanced ahead again, he saw the plane flying toward them.

Trunks glanced at Marron, but she didn't seem to have noticed the mid-sized passenger jet as of yet. From his perspective of heightened awareness, it seemed like he had all the time in the world to get out of the way. He knew that wasn't the case for Marron. She had some fighting experience, but he couldn't safely assume that she had reflexes equal to his…

Trunks moved so fast that his image blurred and disappeared, only becoming visible when he ended up right behind Marron. He wrapped his arms around her middle as gently as he could given the time he had, and pulled her sideways as fast as he could.

"Wha...!" Marron shrieked, and then she felt the wind displacement from the jet. Trunks turned her away from the aftershock of the plane's passing.

* * *

Trunks carried Marron down to the ground, setting her down gently in a grassy area by a lone tree. She was still shaking like a leaf. "Umm...Marron, I'm really sorry about that..." Trunks began. 

Marron took a shuddery breath and sharply interrupted him. "Don't apologize about that!" She almost spat at him. She took a deep breath, and visibly tried to get herself under control. "Trunks, I should be apologizing to you. I should have been paying more attention." She ran her hands through her sweat-soaked hair. "I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't been there," Marron said softly.

"Marron, don't worry about it. If I hadn't been here, you probably wouldn't have been flying at several times the speed of sound." Trunks chuckled dryly. "Since I'm the one who got you in trouble, it's only fair that I get you out."

Marron took a couple of steadying breaths, and then looked up at Trunks with wide eyes. "You've been holding back in front of the others, haven't you?" She said in a breathless whisper.

Trunks looked at her, amused. "Pot calling the kettle black, Marron," Trunks said calmly. "You have a power level higher than twenty-five million, don't you?"

Marron looked at him as if he caught her with her hands in the cookie jar. "How long have you known?" She asked in a shaky voice.

"Two minutes ago. You hide your secret well." Trunks said flippantly. "Be careful around my dad. He could just as easily figure it out as I did." Marron glared at him. "I'm serious, Marron. If you want to keep this a secret, don't do anything like that around him." He paused, thinking."Your mom insisted that you train until you could beat someone as powerful as Cell, didn't she?"

Marron gave up her glare. "Yes. I am strong enough for that."

"No, you aren't." Trunks flatly contradicted her.

Marron's eyes blazed with new anger. "What are you talking about! I'm as strong as he was!"

Trunks shook his head gently. "You may be that strong, but you aren't a fighter in your heart." He blew a sigh. "You don't have the obsession that dominates the mind of people like my father or Goku, or even your mom." He looked over at her. "Why do you think my father is always angry with me?"

Marron looked thoughtful. "Because you aren't as powerful as he is?"

Trunks shook his head again. "No. My father actually hates how easy it is for me to gain power. He thinks of it as cheating…something that lessens the value of what he's accomplished. He's angry because I don't follow the same path that he does."

"He lives, breathes, eats, sleeps and dreams about fighting. That's not to say that he doesn't do other things, but that is primary."

"For me, that's boring. I live, I breathe, I eat, I sleep, I dream. I live in those moments, savoring each instant. New experiences, new knowledge, joys…my parents think I'm drifting in my life, but I'm living it. Even the race we just had." Trunks smiled. "I haven't done anything like that since Goten and I were kids. I was long overdue."

"Marron, you'll never be as strong as the others, because you have other priorities in your life. You're rusty. I bet you lost your edge at college." Trunks smiled at her renewed glare. "Remember at the Tournament when Uub showed up?"

"Yeah, what about it?" Marron bit off the words.

"Pan beat Goten, even though she was only a little kid. Goten had been training with Goku at the time." Trunks gave her a significant glance. "It's all about priorities. Fighting isn't everything."

Marron's glare softened. "Why are you so powerful, then?"

Trunks stared off into space. "My dad is the de-facto protector of the Earth right now. That will be my job, someday."

"Once, I made the mistake of doing that when I wasn't ready. I messed up Earth's only chance for survival, and I didn't listen to Goten when he suggested that we use our full power on Buu right away. Gohan had to bail us out of that mess. He's had to do that enough times. Things are different, now. No more Dragonballs. No more room for mistakes. I'm going to do it right, this time," Trunks said with determination.

Marron looked at him, and then looked away. "I envy you…" She said softly.

Trunks looked at her, astonished. "Marron, I don't envy myself. I have big shoes to fill, and I don't know if I can do it."

"But you have purpose." Marron said, just as softly.

"Marron, weren't you listening? I wish I had a life…a family…time to hang out with my friends…just some time to breathe would be nice." Trunks sighed in frustration. He hadn't had a chance to talk to anyone about this, and here he was dumping his problems on Marron. "I'm sorry, Marron. I shouldn't be inflicting my problems on you. But trust me, it's not fun when destiny taps you."

"It's ok, Trunks. We're friends. That's what friends do." She paused. "You should talk to your mom. You shouldn't be spending so much time at work."

Trunks gave her an incredulous look. "This from you? You've spent more time at work than the furniture, lately."

Marron giggled. "I'm applying for a leave of absence, as of now. There, are you happy?"

Trunks laughed heartily. "Accepted. Paid leave of absence, As long as you like."

Marron's eyes widened to saucers. "Are you serious!"

"Would I lie to you?" Trunks said with false innocence.

Marron sized him up. "You ARE serious, aren't you?" She said softly.

"Yes," Trunks said soberly.

Marron chewed her lower lip. "Ok. Thank you, Trunks."

"C'mon. Breakfast is waiting!" Trunks said to her cheerfully as he offered her a hand. She took the offered hand up. "But no racing this time!" He playfully admonished her.

* * *

As Trunks and Marron flew over the old Capsule Corp. building that his family called home, Trunks saw something amazing. 

Vegeta and Pan were sparring.

More amazing than that was that they were sparing on a raised platform that bore a distinct resemblance to the fighting arena at the World Martial Arts Tournament. Trunks squinted at the two fighters, and saw the distortions in the light patterns caused by a gravity field. _Way to go, mom!_ Trunks thought to himself.

As he took a moment to watch the fight. Pan and Vegeta were observing the boundaries of the ring, but were being surprisingly ferocious. As he watched, Pan made a lightning fast straight punch, but Vegeta blocked it easily. Vegeta was smirking, but Trunks could tell he was amused despite his seeming contempt. His father had often complained that without "Kakarrot" around, there was no one worthy of sparring with him. Apparently he'd found someone.

The Z warriors had taken Pan under their wing after Goku had disappeared. Goku had been her informal teacher, but he'd never really gained ground against her temper and arrogance. Vegeta had that in spades, so he'd become her new informal mentor. Gohan and Trunks had also helped coach her, and between the three of them, Pan had become an extremely skilled and deadly warrior. She still hadn't reached the level of Super-Saiyan, but all of them were convinced that it was simply a matter of time.

Trunks watched Pan move fluidly around the ring, undoubtedly faster than Vegeta as long as he didn't tap into his Super-Saiyan power, but the advantage was his because he had an uncanny knack for anticipating his opponents. His greater experience showed in his every move. Eacha ttack or block was perfectly timed, with no wasted effort or movement.

Pan looked sloppy in comparison, yet she was no longer the clumsy fighter she used to be. Vegeta's style of fighting was very similar to hers, emphasizing power and tactical advantage. Gohan's style revolved around taking and holding the high ground, and pacing yourself. Trunks favored speed and deception in his fights.

Pan integrated each of her teacher's insights into a coherent whole. She was faster, more measured and had a cooler head. Vegeta had encouraged her to harness her temper into a usable weapon. During the infrequent spars that he had seen with the others, she showed a controlled anger that helped her focus, but she was more cautious now than even two years before when she had been challenging the merciless Shadow Dragons.

The results were impressive. Trunks watched as Pan gave Vegeta a run for his money, improvising as she went, even appearing above Vegeta's head.

What a mistake that was.

Vegeta grabbed her leg and threw her hard against the platform. Surprisingly, it held up to her impact. Pan retaliated with a strong energy ball, which forced Vegeta to let go of her to block it. Pan was back on her feet, and wiped some blood from the corner of her mouth. She had a Saiyan smile on her face.

As Trunks landed on the ground, he just stared at his dad. Vegeta was a bit singed from Pan's blast. _That's the first time in awhile that I've seen him hurt. Either he wasn't paying attention, or Pan has gotten a lot better._

Vegeta lifted his hand in a pause gesture. Pan nodded and relaxed. Vegeta turned his glare on his eldest child. "WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT!" Vegeta shouted at him from the ring.

Trunks wasn't quite expecting his dad's reaction. "What do you mean, Father?" Trunks asked.

Vegeta's normal glare turned into a death glare. "Bulma! Why don't you tell him! You had enough to say on the subject five minutes ago!"

Trunks' lavender-haired mom came running out of one of the buildings. "TRUNKS!" She shouted at him "What on earth were you doing! Your sonic boom shook the whole complex!"

Trunks blushed a bit, but surprisingly Marron spoke up. "It's my fault. I challenged Trunks to a race. It was only supposed to be to here, but I got carried away." Marron was looking at the ground, looking downcast.

Bulma blinked. She looked at the two of them, as if sensing a lie. "Marron! You never do anything irresponsible! Are you covering for Trunks?"

Trunks shot his mom a black look. "Mom! Quit it! It's not like something broke, did it?"

Bulma glared back at him. "His Royal Highness was disturbed by your fly by, and you might have damaged what Branford sent to me!"

Trunks sighed in relief. "Relax, mom. If it's broken, Marron can fix it." His mom looked at him in amazement. "I'll try to talk dad down. Hopefully, he'll forget all about it if I train today."

Bulma huffed. "Alright." She sighed gustily. "You probably want food, too, don't you?"

Trunks smiled a small smile. "That would be nice, mom, if you have something left from brunch."

Bulma glared at Vegeta and Pan, who were taking a water break. "Those two have been at it all morning, so for a surprise there's something left. Bra's off shopping for a new dress for the mid-summer party, so I'm sorry if you were hoping to see her, Marron."

Marron looked a bit disappointed at that news, but Trunks barely noticed as he walked over to the buffet table. The smells were intoxicating. As he was helping himself to several blueberry pancakes, something soft but firm bumped him.

"Look! Mr. 'I don't have time for anything' decided to join us!" Pan chirped. She was dressed in a red fighting Gi, and her hair was drenched with sweat.

"Hey Panny." Trunks said, unsurprised. He smiled at her. "That was pretty impressive."

"Ha!" Pan said sarcastically. "'Pretty impressive?' I'd like to see you do as well against Vegeta."

Trunks smiled in amusement. "You may get to see it. I was going to ask him if he'd spar with me."

Pan's eyes went round. "You're not serious! He'd bury you in less than a minute!"

Trunks assumed an expression of mock hurt. "No faith! No faith!" He smiled at Pan's angry expression. "How much gravity were your guys fighting at?"

Pan looked surprised at his question. "Oh, of course you'd notice. You probably lived in a gravity room when you were younger. One-hundred and fifty."

Trunks filed that information away. It was an amazing accomplishment for Pan, but he'd mastered that level of gravity when he was seven. _Pan doesn't have the power of a Super-Saiyan as an advantage, so it's not fair for me to compare the two of us._

Trunks and Goten were both born with the special gift of tapping into their Super-Saiyan abilities without effort. The other Super-Saiyins had to train arduously for years to even reach the first transformation, and even then the transformation was horribly draining. Trunks and Goten transformed effortlessly, and suffered no stamina drain during the transformation. For them, it just seemed more...natural.

Most of the Z warriors expected Pan to have the same power, but it never materialized. She was naturally far stronger than she should be, given the limited amount of training she had, but the transformation seemed to be denied to her. Trunks often wondered whether her strangely mixed bloodline or the odd power-raising ceremony the Elder Kai had performed on Gohan was to blame.

Whatever the case, Pan was not a Super-Saiyan yet. However, the last two years had been years of growth for the fiery tempered little Quarter-Saiyan. She had grown almost a foot, but was still as thin as before. She might have looked lanky, but her constant training toned her muscles perfectly, and she wasn't much inconvenienced by her new longer limbs.

Trunks took a moment to covertly admire her. _It's not every day that I get to see a cute girl panting from exertion._ Even as he admired her, it was an abstract kind of admiration. Much like observing something that he usually paid no attention to, it was interesting…but in the way a sunset is interesting if you haven't seen one lately. _Marron's right. I've got to talk to mom about getting this work thing under control._

Pan, meanwhile, was filling her plate, and Trunks realized that if he didn't do the same, she and his dad would eat everything! He browsed around for several plates more of food, and chose a spot under a tree to eat. Pan bounced along not far behind him, and took a seat next to him leaning against his shoulder.

"This is nice," She sighed as she took her first bite of omelet.

Trunks sighed in pleasure. He'd missed having Pan around. On their trip around the galaxy, there were certainly times that he wanted to kill her, but the little firecracker made life interesting. _She burns with life, and she's like an eternal child. I miss Goku, and I miss the way Goten used to be. Maybe I should have been more of a child, myself._

Goku's smiling face popped into his head. _"No time like the present!"_ Goku usually meant "food" when he said that, but he was right about this, too. _Who needs responsibility. I need a vacation._ He smiled broadly at the thought.

Pan looked over at him. "Hey! I thought you were hungry!"

Trunks blinked and smiled at her. "I missed you, Panny."

Pan blushed. "Hey! Don't call me that!" She snuggled into his shoulder. "Just to show you how nice I am, I won't hit you for it."

Trunks saw his mom giving him the strangest look. _Oh, yeah. The food._ He couldn't believe it. He'd been so hungry not that long before, but his appetite had vanished. _I have to eat. Just because I don't feel hungry doesn't mean I'm not._ He took a few bites of the pancakes he had been drooling over, and felt some of his appetite return. He still felt Pan leaning against him, but it was a pleasant sensation.

Trunks was eating slowly, for him. He saw his dad help himself to an enormous quantity of food for himself, but wonder of wonders, he wasn't eating alone. Vegeta and Bulma were eating at an outdoor table, both looking happy. _Will wonders never cease,_ Trunks thought to himself. He never thought he'd see the day when his parents were happy together. It sparked a longing within him for something similar.

Trunks looked to his left, and noticed that Pan had long ago finished eating, and was peacefully sleeping against him. He ate carefully, hoping not to disturb her. _She must have gone all out with dadthis morning. She's really something else._ After he'd had his fill, he found himself drowsing, too. _Enough of this today. I need a nap as badly as she does._

It was too late though. Between work, training and dealing with problems at home, he was more sleep deprived than he thought. As soon as he carefully moved Pan to a more stable position against his chest, the dark well of sleep beckoned him, and his eyes closed against their will.

* * *

Bulma looked over at the shade tree, and saw the two of them sleeping. She smiled slightly as she was reminded of the past. _I remember when they used to fall asleep like that when Pan was here visiting years ago._

Vegeta had a slightly different expression on his face. Bulma noticed it. "What is it, Vegeta?" She asked the usually bad-tempered Prince.

Vegeta shook his head. "An odd thought, that's all."

Bulma gave him a puzzled look. "Care to elaborate, Mr. Talkative?"

Vegeta looked at her seriously. "I think we both need to have a talk with Trunks."

Bulma was still puzzled. "About what?"

Vegeta looked over at his son. "Freedom."


	3. Haunted by the past

A/N: I bugged my muse for 2 days straight, and I got this! How cool is that? I hope you like it as much as I do.

Special thanks to LauraNeatO for her quick-editing of this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own DragonballZ/GT

Chapter 3

* * *

Trunks woke late that afternoon. The sun was low on the horizon as he slowly opened his eyes. _Where am I? I fell asleep against the tree…_ He felt soft bedding beneath him, and saw the familiar items that comprised his room. _Did my parents bring me inside?_ He wondered to himself.

As the haze from his nap slowly evaporated, he realized that he wasn't the only one sleeping on his huge bed. A small hand was on his chest, and he saw the familiar form of Pan curled up next to him. Trunks was perplexed.

_Why on earth did they put her in the same room with me, let alone on the same bed?_ Trunks had had titanic fights with his mom over girls in the past. Not that there were many, but even during sleepovers when he was younger, his mom was adamant that boys and girls didn't mix.

_"Don't give me that, Trunks!" His mom had shouted. "She's not going in your room, and that's final! You can do your homework out here!"_

The girl had been a study partner and Trunks hadn't found her all that attractive, but his mom hadn't relented. Only Pan or Bra were allowed in his room, and for Pan, that had been years ago when he babysat her for Gohan and Videl. _That was such an easy job,_ Trunks thought wryly._ Pan was so mellow as a kid. Who would have thought that she'd grow up to be so feisty,_ he thought with a grin.

That mellowness seemed restricted to her sleep now, Trunks noted. _She's adorable like that,_ He thought as he watched her chest rise and fall with slow, even breaths. She, like her grandfather Goku, was a very sound sleeper. He was almost tempted to wake her up with some kind of prank, but he simply couldn't justify interrupting her obvious contentment.

When he tried to get up, her arm tightened around his middle. _Well, apparently she always has an opinion, even when she's sleeping,_ he thought with wry humor. _Now how am I supposed to get out of **that**?_

He silently sighed. This wasn't really a new problem. Pan had often done this when she was a kid. They'd have naptime, she'd insist on sleeping next to him, and she'd latch on to him with everything she had. _Oh, well. I guess I could try the usual method for solving this, but she might get the wrong idea since she's so much older, now._

Trunks agonized over the morality of the situation, but a small part of him secretly cheered at the idea. _Screw it. I'm going to do it._

He gave up trying to get away from the impish dark haired girl and gathered her into his arms instead. She instinctively snuggled into his embrace, still very much asleep. As unfamiliar as the sensations were, Trunks decided that he liked them.

About twenty minutes later, Pan began to stir. Trunks had lightly dozed in the interim, but came awake as she started to stretch and mumble. He pondered the best way to deal with how he had taken advantage of the situation, and decided to let her have a few minutes to compose herself and get disentangled from him. _This really isn't my fault, but I can't help feeling guilty for doing that,_ He thought to himself.

As Trunks feigned sleep, Pan shifted a bit in his arms. He heard a sharp intake of breath, and then a sigh afterward. Surprisingly, she didn't try to get disentangled immediately. If anything, she seemed to relax into his embrace. Trunks didn't know what to make of it, and with his eyes closed, he couldn't see her expression.

He should have known something was up. She was every bit as bad a prankster as he was. As he focused on slow, even breathing, her hands glided to his sides and she began mercilessly tickling him.

Trunks burst out with helpless laughter as he tried to squirm away from her hands. She followed him as he rolled, and suddenly she was on top of him. As Trunks opened his eyes, he saw an impish grin on her face, but he'd managed to grab both of her hands with his. He breathed out in relief.

"Ha!" Pan chirped triumphantly. "I got you good! And you're still right where I want you!"

Trunks looked up at her with an evil grin. "Really…" the lavender haired Saiyan remarked. "I'd say that you're right where I want you. You have three seconds to surrender."

Pan looked at him as if he were crazy. "Me? Surrender?! Uh-uh!"

Trunks gave her that evil grin again. "One."

Pan still had a puzzled look on her face as she felt a draft. She also felt her weight shift, but when she looked down, Trunks was still there.

"Two."

This time Pan was sure she felt it. Her weight was shifted again, and now she heard a shower somewhere close. She was getting nervous.

"Three."

Pan blinked as the call of three came out. When her eyes were opening again, she saw the world blur by, and her sense of movement caught up with her. She felt an extreme sense of shift, and then suddenly a shocking sensation.

"TRUNKS!" She screamed as the water poured over her head and down her body, rapidly absorbed by her fighting uniform. Then the shock wore off, and she felt the full sensation of the cold shower.

"AHHH!" She screamed. "Make it stop!"

Trunks politely turned the indicator to warm, and then hot water. As he walked out of the bathroom to his bedroom, a smile was on his face and he was humming tunelessly. _Revenge is sweet,_ He thought to himself.

* * *

Trunks walked down the hall, and lightly knocked on his sister's door. "Hey Bra, are you home?"

"Yeah! Just a minute!" He heard some bustling, as if she were clearing the way to her door. The noises continued for a moment, and then the door opened. "Hi Trunks!" Bra said brightly. She was wearing a non-descript white tee-shirt and not much else.

Trunks blushed. "I'm sorry, Bra. I interrupted you trying on your dress, didn't I?"

Bra smiled at him. "It's ok, Trunks. What did you need?"

"Pan's here, and she needs something to change into once she's done with her shower. You have sweats and a tee-shirt in her size?"

Bra smirked at him. "Oh, so that's what all that racket was about. Give me a minute."

Trunks smiled at her intuition. "Thanks, Bra. Oh, FYI, I'm pretty sure Marron's around here somewhere. I think she wanted to hang out with you."

Bra brightened. "Cool! Not that I don't like you, bro, but you don't have good taste in clothing. I'll have to show her my new dress and the other stuff I got." She paused. "I'll get what you need for Pan. I think Mom's thinking about a party tonight. You might want to be ready to get dressed up, and make sure Pan has something nice to wear."

Trunks groaned audibly, much to his sister's amusement. "It's not that bad, Trunks. Mom throws good parties, and at least she doesn't invite strangers and company people. Gohan and Videl usually come, and maybe Goten will too." Her eyes got a sinister glint in them at the mention of Goten.

Trunks had to laugh. "Bra, are you going to play with him, again?"

Bra smiled a covert smile. "Don't tell him, k? He's fun to play with."

Trunks covered his mouth and stifled his laughter. "And spoil the fun of watching him turn all sorts of colors?"

Bra had a bad habit of leading Goten on when she was bored. Trunks had to admit that his sister could be absolutely alluring when she felt like it. More than one guy had felt the sting of rejection from her. She liked taking players down a notch, and Goten had felt her sting more than once.

Trunks had the feeling that Bra would make an awesome wife, but she demanded a lot in her potential mates. Vegeta's example had made quite an impression on both of them. Neither were ready to settle for anything other than the best.

Bra beamed at him, and winked. "You won't be disappointed…unless you have other things on your mind tonight," she said slyly, and promptly ran back in her room.

Moments later, she had an orange tank top, a black undershirt, sweatpants in the same color and some panties. Trunks blushed at the last item. Bra's laughter was like a set of chimes. "You'd think someone your age could deal with that, big brother," she said with a slightly mocking smile.

Trunks laughed, a bit mortified by his embarrassment. "Thanks, Bra. If I see Marron, I'll send her over." As Trunks headed back, Bra shook her head and went back into her room.

* * *

"Trunks Vegeta Briefs! That was totally uncalled for!" Pan screamed from the shower when Trunks entered.

Trunks smirked at his accomplishment. "I have some clothes for you to change into, and two fresh towels. Take your time. I have to go talk to my dad."

"He's not here, dimwit!" Pan said smugly. "Look at the note on your mirror!"

As Trunks was leaving, he heard the shower door open.

:Splat!:

He felt a wet article of clothing hit him in the back. He turned back to see the grinning face of Pan, while the rest of her was hiding behind the frosted glass of the shower door. He couldn't see details, but her pale skin and lithe form were clearly visible. He couldn't let her get a clear win like that. He quickly decided that embarrassment was the proper answer, this time.

Trunks made sure she noticed what he was looking at and whistled in appreciation. She turned bright red and slammed the shower door. "TRUNKS!" She shrieked at him.

_Mission accomplished, again._ He smirked, shaking his head as he left the room.

* * *

Trunks walked over to his mirror, wondering when Pan had the opportunity to read the note on it.

_Trunks,_ The note started in Bulma's neat handwriting. _Your father and I have some things to take care of. We'll be gone until later. We offered Marron the room next door. She was as tired as you and Pan were. See you at about 7!_

_Hmm. Bra is probably right. I bet mom went out to shop and set up catering for a party._ Trunks shrugged. _The timing couldn't be better. Marron and I will have to leave soon,_ Trunks thought to himself. _This will be the perfect time to make the announcement, and say our goodbyes._

The prototype time machine could hold three passengers. Trunks hadn't decided on a third person, and wasn't sure one was needed._ At least we don't have the problem the other Trunks had. _Jump fuel wasn't an issue. Marron's team had built the new time machine with a fusion drive. Water existed everywhere, and hence, they could cross over as many times as they wanted.

Trunks flopped on his bed, letting himself fall backward, gracelessly. He frowned at the ceiling. _I've painted myself into a corner, again,_ He thought with distaste. _I hate when I lie, and get caught._

He had no idea why Babidi hadn't shown up in the other Trunks' timeline by the time the time machine was finished, but he had lied to Marron earlier today about the problem of Buu. He knew that Buu was a very real threat, and that the demented little wizard Babidi was unlikely to skip his appointment with the innocent looking ball that was buried deep within the earth.

Nightmarish visions swirled in his head of the pink monster turning entire cities of people into chocolate and then destroying all of the buildings, or blowing them up in nuclear sized blasts because he happened to be passing by. He and Goten had borne witness to Buu killing Dabura, the Demon King, by turning him into a cookie and eating him, after beating him senseless as if it were as easy as 1, 2, 3.

His past had come back to haunt him. All of his failures rose up to mock him, like the super ghosts that he and Goten had thought up.

_Hahahaha!_ The insane laughter of the super ghosts seemed to echo in his head, and one of them pulled it's eyelid down and smirked at him. _You thought you were pretty clever, didn't you, you little Saiyan rat!_ The ghost spat as it changed into the rodent-like form of Babidi. The ghost changed again, this time into the obscene form of Bebi. _I had your number the whole time, you little bastard!_Bebi's voice mocked him. _You weren't even worth my contempt. You were just another tool._

The laughter continued, and so did the taunts. The worst part was that they were all true. Trunks was chilled to the bone. _I did my best every time, and it still wasn't enough. _

_Goten and I almost died when we faced Buu the first time. I was sure that we'd win, because Buu's power was so much less than ours. Later, I fouled us up again in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber by holding back our Super-Saiyan 3 transformation, and by scaring Piccolo enough that he destroyed the way out so that Buu would be trapped. Then I fouled up AGAIN that day by wasting time taunting Buu when our fusion time limit was almost up. And just to spit in everyone's face one more time, I fouled up one more time and took Buu's bait. Gohan almost died because I wouldn't say no to Buu's taunts._

_I wasn't any better when I got older. Goku had to do most of the fighting on our search for the dragonballs, and even though I had read all of the data files on Bebi, I still let him slip through our fingers when we had him dead to rights on the Machine Planet. He infested me on the medical planet, and even though I expelled him, I should have let them scan me and remove all traces of him. Instead, we went back to earth, gave the dragonballs to people who weren't acting themselves, and I was already enslaved without even knowing it._

_Years later, I let Android 17 slip though my fingers, too. He was no match for me, but instead of destroying him before he could do any harm, I simply reacted to what he did, and let him get away to fuse with the artificial android 17. Krillin died, and Marron almost did because of that mistake._

Trunks was drowning in a sea of despair. _What right do I have to try to help the people in the other dimension? More often than not, I've simply made things worse. _

_More than that, what if my influence is what's knocked Goten so far off course? He was everyone's hopes and dreams when he was younger. He was like Goku, reborn smarter and even stronger than the legendary Saiyan. What if my arrogance and uncaring attitude when I was younger changed him into what he is today?_

The super ghosts continued laughing at him. _The failed son of the Prince of the Saiyans,_ they said. The arrogant fool who had ignored the death of almost the entire human race. _The blind fool,_ they taunted him. _The blind fool, born of a blind fool. Born of a race of blind fools._ They tittered. _The Saiyan race that is so proud of their hollow accomplishments…they cause only death…_

"Trunks…?" Pan's voice interrupted his waking nightmare. She cringed as she looked into his eyes. "What's wrong?" she asked softly.

Trunks shook his head, but he couldn't shake the torment from his mind or heart. "I don't want to talk about it," he said with fear and anguish in his heart. He bit his lip, and tried to keep the tears away. "You should probably go someplace else. I'm not good company right now."

Pan dropped the brush that she was holding, and sat on the bed next to him. "I'm not going anywhere," she said softly. She laid a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong?" she said very softly, compellingly.

Trunks' eyes began to tear. "Pan, I'm a failure. My father was right about me all along." He choked at that admission. Vegeta's unforgiving words had always been ice cold daggers in his heart. Almost as far back as he'd heard those words from the cold person that was his father, he'd done his best to fight those words or ignore them. Never in his mind had they been true, even though they came from the person he almost worshipped.

Pan laid down next to him. "You aren't a failure, you know," she said softly. "More people than you know owe their lives to you. Grandpa Goku and I are just two of them." She gently touched his face. "What brought this on?"

Trunks bit his lip. He didn't want to tell her, but she also deserved to know. "Marron was successful with mom's project. We can go to the world of the time-traveling Trunks."

He felt Pan stiffen next to him. "I still don't see what this has to do with you being a failure," she said, her voice a bit strained.

"Majin Buu exists there," Trunks said, forcing the words out. His eyes blurred with tears. "Goten and I fought him when we were kids. There was no one else left. Buu had beaten my dad, Gohan, the Supreme Kai, even Goku. We knew there was no one else who could do it, but I was arrogant and stupid. I blew our chances of winning at every turn. A lot of people died because of me, including Marron, my mom and your mom."

Pan tensed up even more. "That's not how I heard it. Everyone says that you bought time that they needed. My dad had time to go through the ceremony at the Planet of the Kais because of what you and Goten did." Pan's voice was reassuring.

Trunks sobbed. Pan looked stricken at his condition. "Pan, go ask Piccolo for his side of the story, if you want to know the real truth," Trunks said in a shaky voice. "He knows that I'm the one who messed everything up. Goten wanted Majin Buu's blood after the demon killed his mom. I convinced him that it would be more exciting to finish Buu off at the moment he was sure that he had us. I think it appealed to Goten's anger to piss Buu off and then blow him away at his moment of triumph."

"We never got the chance. While I was pretending that I had nothing left to throw at Buu, Piccolo destroyed the door to the time chamber. He was certain that the earth was doomed."

"Buu couldn't be caged that easily. With one wail of absolute rage, he ripped a hole in the dimensions, and off he went. I could have used our trump card at that point. Maybe it would have gotten us killed, since we had less than five minutes left of the fusion."

"Nevertheless, I should have used it right after our resting hour was up. Instead, I waited until Piccolo gave up hope of ever escaping, and then I still showed off about the fact that we were third level Super-Saiyans."

"When we got out, it was too late. All of the people at the Lookout were gone, and Buu was rubbing his belly." Trunks paused to sob again. "If we'd gotten out in the first hour, it would have only been ten seconds in the real world. We could have stopped him, and everyone would have escaped."

Pan seemed shocked, but she heard the Demi-Saiyan out. "Shhh…" she said quietly. "You were only seven. You had no real concept of what was going on…"

Trunks wiped his tears away, but the anguished expression didn't go away. "Pan, I was no less stupid with Bebi. I could have killed you…that whole mess was my fault. I knew that we should have chased him down and killed him, but instead I insisted on us going back to finding the dragonballs!"

Pan got up and looked him in the eyes. "Trunks. Stop it!" She said with authority. "You're second guessing everything! We wouldn't have even known about Bebi if it weren't for you, and General Rildo would have been the end of us if not for you and Giro."

"You were the only one who gave Giro a chance, and he's saved us more times than I can count. Grandpa Goku trusted you, and he didn't do that with just anyone."

"And your dad was an ass. My dad says that Vegeta has gotten us in more trouble than anyone he knows. Vegeta is my acarya now, but my dad said that the way he used to be, you never knew if he was going to bail you out from the worst trouble imaginable or if he was going to try and kill you."

Suddenly, Pan was sobbing, too. "My dad said that the whole thing with Majin Buu was Vegeta and the Supreme Kai's fault." She took a moment to wipe her eyes. "You never should have had to do any of what you did. You and Goten were forced to be what no kid should ever have to be- the only hope anyone had."

"Goku had to bail this world out from Piccolo, twice, from what my dad told me. He was just a kid!" Pan continued relentlessly. "Kami screwed up, and a kid had to save the world. Before that, Master Mutaito had to sacrifice his life to stop King Piccolo."

"My dad had to save everyone from Cell. He was 11 years old! Where was the Supreme Kai?! Where was anyone else, for that matter? Vegeta attacked the Trunks from the future so that he could test his power against Cell's perfect form. He handed the universe to Cell for the cost of possible entertainment."

"So Damn You, Trunks! Don't you even THINK about listening to him talk about failure! HE'S the failure. He lives in my Grandpa's shadow only because he didn't kill Cell when he had the chance. He could have been the hero. He threw it all away because of his pride."

Pan's look of disgust said it all, and the super-ghosts in his mind shut up. _I can't believe that so many people had to shoulder so many burdens, including me._ He silently forgave himself for his mistakes in the past. That's all they were. Mistakes. He'd tried his best, and done what he thought he had to. _That was a long time ago. Hopefully, I've learned what I needed to. It's time to bury the ghosts that have been haunting me._

Trunks looked over at Pan. He had a new respect for her, a respect greater than he had ever felt for anyone before this. Gratitude to her filled him to the deepest recesses of his being. He cried again, but this time it was happy tears of release.

"Pan…" Trunks said, his voice still shaking with sobs, "I don't know how to thank you for this…you've set me free."

As he had hoped, the gratitude and sincerity came through. Pan embraced him, laying across his chest. "Welcome back to the world of the living," she said softly.


	4. A step forward

A/N: Sorry to make the real chapter 4 disappear! I was playing with the import/export thing, and poof, chapter 4 is chapter 1!

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT

* * *

Tomorrow Waits for Us 

Chapter 4

* * *

Trunks fell asleep again with Pan's slight weight on his chest. The emotional drain of his catharsis combined with his general exhaustion weighed him down into a deep sleep. For a time, black oblivion was all that he experienced. 

Soon, though, the dreams came.

He saw a blue sky, clear in all directions. The wind was calm, and he was flying far above the ground.

"Hey Trunks!" A child's voice called to him. He looked to the right and saw a young Goten flying beside him. "When are we going to see the Buu-monster?"

"I don't know, Goten," came Trunks' surly reply. "I can feel big sources of energy all over. It feels like there's fighting going on in more than one place." As he spoke, some seagulls were flying quickly toward them. Their cries were eerie.

"Look...birdies!" little Goten said. He frowned with comical-looking seriousness. "They sound scared."

Little Trunks looked at the seagulls. "I don't know what scared birds sound like." He sat cross-legged in the air. "If they're scared, maybe it was the Buu-monster that scared them...let's go that way, Goten."

The background in the dream changed, and he was looking over the edge of a cliff. His dad was far below in a desolate valley. The Saiyan Prince was covered in blood and his fighting outfit was torn, but he had a confident grin on his face. There was a tattoo on his forehead in the shape of an "M", and a golden aura blazed around him.

The fat pink creature across from him was dancing in rage, lookingcompletely out of place fighting with an ascended Super-Saiyan. "Me no like you! You make Buu mad!"Buu shrieked ina high pitched, childish voice as steam blew out of the holes in his head, emphasizing his frustration.

"What a peculiar creature," Vegeta said in a slow drawl, as he lifted his hand and pointed two fingers toward Buu. His aura flared momentarily as he powered up, and an intense blast shot from his fingers right through Buu's middle. Buu fell flat on his face.

Buu got up after a moment, and filled the gaping hole in his middle. He looked murderously toward Vegeta.

"ME MAD NOW!" Buu said with horrible intensity, and a hellish light started eminating from his useless looking form. A huge blast of power exploded from Buu's pink body, consuming everything in a large radius, including Vegeta.

The dream shifted again, and Trunks was standing on white tiles, surrounded by palm trees and open sky. He was looking across at Goten. Goten nodded to him.

"Fu - sion...HA!" The both said in unison, as they performed the strange Metamarese dance. Just as their voices blended together, their bodies merged, binding together with mystical energy. They became one being: Gotenks.

"You're all afraid of Buu, but Buu is nothing." Gotenks said in that strange blended voice. "We will bring him back...dead."

The dream shifted again. Goku stood before him, and Goten was on his right. Goku was powering up, showing them the power that they had felt earlier, when Goku had fought with Buu.

As he was reaching the limits of Super-Saiyan level two, his hair was starting to lengthen and body began twisting in odd ways to accommodate the higher power. "The power must come from deep within..." Goku was saying.

* * *

Trunks woke with a start. 

_What a dream..._Trunks thought to himself. He glanced at the clock by his bed. It read 7:17 in red digital numbers. As he was getting his bearings, he noticed that Pan was gone. _The party must have started already._

He stared at the ceiling. He didn't feel the usual bitterness and self-loathing that usually came with his dreams of Buu. _This one wasn't so bad...it was almost as if the dream was trying to tell me something._

He thought about the dream, teasing out possible meanings. He might have thought that he was simply remembering the past, but the scenes seemed too deliberately chosen. After a moment of pondering, his eyes opened wide in realization.

_I can't defeat Buu as I am now. I have to cross the barrier and become level three, or even four..._

Trunks had often wondered if he had the ability to reach level three, but he'd never been a position to need it. As part of the Gotenks fusion he had reached that level, but never as himself.

_Alright, Buu. I accept your challenge._ Trunks got up from his bed, feeling a bit disoriented as he did so, and walked to the bathroom. He washed his face in the sink and as he glanced in the mirror, he noticed that the haunted look that was usually there was gone. _Let's see what's possible...but not here. I'd disturb everyone at the party._

Trunks thought about it, and decided that splitting a continent in half wasn't on his list of desirable things to do. _The ocean is only half an hour flying distance from here. It's likely that there wouldn't be any witnesses, either._

Trunks flew out his window, quickly reaching top speed. He didn't notice Pan walking into his room as he left, or feel the dark eyes that watched him go.

* * *

Trunks reached the western coast faster than he anticipated. He had been pushing, but had chosen not to go super on the off-chance that he would be spotted. He was mulling the problems ahead of him, so he hadn't really been paying attention to where he was going. As he stared at the beach, he realized that if he was successful, that it might create a tidal wave. _That's no good. I'm not Oceanus Shenron._

He decided to go further out. Ironically, he realized that he was close to Master Roshi's Island. _History repeats itself, I suppose,_ Trunks though wryly. Goku had been at Master Roshi's when he had committed himself to go above the level of Super-Saiyan. His decision had changed history. Trunks hoped that it was an auspicious omen.

He stopped close to fifty miles out from the shore. _This should be about right._ He closed his eyes, and mentally searched the surrounding area for life. The search turned up very little. A lot of creatures underwater, a few seagulls...no humans, though. _If I do this higher up, the impact on the water should be minimal._

He flew up until he was about two hundred feet above the choppy waves. A storm was brewing in the area, but for Trunks it was like an outward manifestation of his mood. His pulsed raced when he heard the ear-shattering thunder roll across the turbulent sea, and the scream of the wind was no less exhilarating.

_Well, here goes nothing._ He closed his eyes, and let himself go.

A golden aura flared around him almost immediately as he began to tap into his power. His hair stood on end and he felt the heat-waves of power radiating from his body. As he pushed his power higher, his hair stood up in a more pronounced way, and his muscles started to bulge. As he was reaching his normal limit, he felt a burning within him, and a vague fear of what was next.

_Goten and I were able reach a level beyond my dad's because we had no fear, and because there was a genuine need. Goten's need for vengeance and my need to show everyone that we were the best brought us to what everyone thought was the maximum. I have no reason to fear, and every reason to go for this!_

And then it happened.

The earth shook with tremors as Trunks went beyond Super-Saiyan 2. His hair slowly extended down his back, and his form shifted and bulged, yielding greater muscle structure and stronger bones. A feral consciousness awakened within Trunks, and his senses sharpened as his form became more bestial.

He was the calm within the whirlwind as the transformation continued. The storm raged even more fiercely around him, the elements disrupted by the massive power that he was expressing. When the transformation was complete, the sea calmed around him.

He wasn't done yet.

He deliberately opened the door in his mind to the memory of when he was Gotenks, and had escaped the Hyperbolic Time chamber. He tasted the fiery hatred and the sickening grief of finding out that Buu had killed his mother. He let the pain and anger flood through him unchecked, and the tears followed freely from his eyes. He screamed his rage and anguish to the skies. His power skyrocketed in response, and he felt himself reaching powers beyond what he had tapped as Gotenks.

He gently let out the breath he had been holding. _This will be enough for now._ He felt a deep peace wash over him. He'd done it! He'd reached the next level. He let his power fade down to normal Super-Saiyan 3, but didn't power down below that. He wanted to see how exhausting it would be to hold his transformation.

As he was trying to catch his breath from his exertion, he noticed that it was raining heavily now. The fresh scent of the rain mixed with the salty smell of the sea relaxed him. An odd scent came to his nose, one that he might not have noticed without the heightened senses that his transformation granted him. It was the faint smell of shampoo…the type a girl might use.

"Hello, Pan." Trunks said calmly, in a husky voice caused by his new form.

"Trunks..." She stammered. "Are you ok?"

Trunks opened his eyes to see her looking at him with a strange mix of wonder and apprehension. He also noted that she was soaked to the skin and shivering a bit. He smiled slightly. "You have no idea. But you shouldn't be out here...you want me to fly you home?"

Pan was obviously uncomfortable, but she shook her head. "You can't go anywhere like that, Trunks. I'm sure your dad is pulling his hair out right now trying to figure out where all that power is coming from."

Trunks chuckled softly. "Sorry. I forgot about that." He let his power level go back to normal, and he felt his body reassume it's old shape. The cold from his wet clothing soaked into his skin almost immediately. _I bet she's a lot colder._ He frowned in worry. _I don't have anything dry to put around her._ He moved closer to Pan, but she flinched back from him.

He looked into her eyes, trying to fathom what was wrong. Depthless black mirrors regarded him. _Her eyes are usually so expressive...why would she hide things from me?_

"Pan, what's wrong?"

She regarded him with an unreadable expression. "Why did you do it?" She said finally, shivering even more violently.

"What do you mean, Pan?" He looked at her pleadingly. "We have to get you out of the rain! You'll be sick for sure if don't get you warm…"

"DON'T BE AN IDIOT!" She screamed at him, tears bursting from her eyes. "You're leaving us, aren't you! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME!"

Trunks tried to fly closer to her, but she flew backward, keeping the same distance between them.

"ANSWER ME!" She screamed at him.

"I don't want to go…" Trunks said softly. The downpour had faded into a fine mist, and surprisingly Pan was able to hear his answer.

"What…?" Pan said just as softly in response.

"I don't want to leave," Trunks responded quietly. "But they need us. Gohan shouldn't have to do this. Neither should my dad. Goku's gone. That leaves me."

Pan sobbed. "Why does it have to be you! Why can't it be someone else! Goten should do it! He didn't help us with the Black Star Dragonballs!"

"Shh…" Trunks said soothingly, carefully flying over to her. "Goten can't do it alone. Only you and I have ever hunted the Black Star Dragonballs. One of us has to go."

Pan flew into his arms. "It's still not fair." She said, he voice muffled against his chest. Trunks held her close, hoping some of his body heat was getting to her. _She's so cold…I have to get her back._

"C'mon. Let's go back to my house. It's closer than yours, and your parents are probably there anyway." Trunks felt Pan's nod more than saw it.

* * *

Almost an hour later, Trunks flew back into his bedroom. He reflexively glanced at his clock. _8:56._

Pan was dead asleep in his arms, but seemed warmer. She' fallen asleep on their return trip after he had offered to have her ride on his back.

He didn't want to wake her, so a bath was out of the question. _It's too bad. I'm sure it would have helped._ He settled for stripping her out of her wet clothing.He blushed as he saw almost all of her body exposed, but was concerned that she was still cold and clammy. He put her on the unused side of his bed, and covered her with several blankets.

After that, he noticed that he was shaking as well. _The transformation must have been more draining than I thought. I'd better go eat something…and I can bring some hot chocolate back for Pan._

As he left his room, he felt a sudden and unexplainable apprehension. As he reached the kitchen, he knew why.

Vegeta was enjoying what he would consider a light snack, but most other people would consider a large dinner. His dark, piercing eyes regarded his son with a measuring stare. "Had a busy day, did we?" Vegeta said conversionally, but with an undertone of menace.


	5. Delicate situations

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT

* * *

Tomorrow Waits for Us

Chapter 5

* * *

The air crackled with the tension of Vegeta's unspoken question.

_Some things never change,_ Trunks absently mused to himself as he wandered through the enormous kitchen. He felt his father's glare on his back as he searched for hot chocolate mix. He knew what Vegeta wanted, and even understood why his father was agitated. He just had too much in his mind to sort out before he explained the situation. As he put a pot of water on to boil, Trunks found himself thinking about the past again.

The year after the defeat of the shadow dragons had been hellish. Goku's request of Shenron had been honored, yet it hadn't been the clear victory that battle with Majin Buu had been. The people had been revived, but Li Shenron's planet-wide destruction had not been repaired. The dragons had destroyed almost all of the food on earth, and many of the animals. Famine and disease had been a real problem, but Bulma and the Z fighters were able to help in ways that most others couldn't.

Trunks had focused on rebuilding Capsule Corp. The capsules could be used to transport thousands of pounds of supplies, water, vehicles and even buildings. The emergency supplies that had been stockpiled at the main Capsule Corp. building had been used as wages for the employees that came back to work for him- money had been worthless at the time.

Vegeta, Goten and Gohan spent their time demolishing ruined building and clearing areas of wreckage so that new construction could begin. Uub used his bizarre talents to change things like rocks and trees into food, many times being the only thing preventing entire cities from dying of starvation. Pan and Videl delivered the capsules that Trunks was producing. Bulma spent her time supervising the effort to rebuild the dams and power plants. Slowly, the overwhelming chaos gave way to a tentative order. Shelters were set up, and lines of communication were re-established.

There was nothing straightforward about it, though. Having an entire planet devastated required that many people abandon their homes during the winter months in their hemisphere. It created a logistical nightmare for Trunks and the others that were trying to force everything back into a state of semi-normalcy. Paradoxically, some of Trunks' best employees had had joined him when they were forced to shelter in Western City. Branford and Stacy were transplants that had chosen to stay after the rebuilding had been completed.

Only in the last few months had regular air travel and commerce been re-established, and with such services available again, currency was accepted again instead of barter. Trunks realized that it wasn't his job that was bugging him, it was the pointlessness of it compared to the things he'd done in the past. He sighed his recognition of that fact as he noticed the water boiling on the stove.

In his reverie, he had forgotten to get the mugs for the hot chocolate. Worse, He'd ignored his simmering father. _Let him wait,_ Trunks thought bitterly. _He never wants to talk with me unless it's on his terms anyway._

In some ways, he and his dad were getting along far better than they ever had. However, even after the incredible events that heralded the end of an era, Trunks and Vegeta were still as far away as ever from having any kind of normal father/son relationship. Vegeta had never been prepared to be a father. It just sort of happened, and it showed in the ways that he acted toward his son. He still resented Trunks' unnatural gift for fighting and was scornful of his desire to lead a semi-normal life.

Trunks, on the other hand, still showed the scars of enduring a childhood without his father's love. He was angry at Vegeta for being so obsessed with fighting and his Saiyan heritage. There was a surprisingly deep hatred buried beneath that anger- Trunks knew that his Father would never accept him. If he didn't measure up to the absurd standards set by his father, he was a weakling. If he surpassed his father, he was a potential foe.

As Trunks was mixing the mugs of hot chocolate, he thought about how he was always afraid to put forth his full effort. The delicate peace between himself and his father required that his achievements never overshadow Vegeta's. _Who knows how far I could have gone without him in my way._

As Trunks headed back to his room, Vegeta finally spoke. "I want an explanation, later," the Saiyan Prince said flatly as he continued to eat.

Trunks paused in his journey and turned back to his father. "I'll be back. I just need to tend to Pan first."

Vegeta gave him an inscrutable look, and then nodded, acting as if nothing had happened.

* * *

When Trunks walked back into his room he noticed that Pan was still asleep, but seemed to be sweating. Trunks set the two mugs of cocoa down on his nightstand, and placed his hand against her forehead. _She's burning up...but maybe that's from the blankets._ He took two of them off, tossing them casually on the floor. _I should really be at the party, but I don't want to leave her like this._ He decided to sit on his side of the bed until her condition was more promising.

Trunks sipped the dark chocolate cocoa, wincing at how bright the light seemed in his room. He clicked the remote by his bed, and all of the lights went out. The darkness seemed to swallow the room except for the faint moonlight coming from his window. As he savored the hot liquid, his internal shaking stopped.

_How did Pan know that I was out there?_ He briefly wondered to himself. _Did she follow me?_

His musing was interrupted by Pan's soft sounds of discomfort. As he tried to fathom what the problem was, small, pale hands appeared from under the covers.

"Trunks...?" She asked in a sleepy voice.

"I'm here."

"Where are we...?" She asked.

"My house. You fell asleep on the way back."

"Trunks…what happened to my clothes?" She asked with a dangerous edge to her voice.

Trunks could feel a blush spread across his cheeks. "Uh…your clothes were soaked, and you were pretty cold when we got back…"

"I see." Trunks could almost feel angry sparks coming off of the volatile girl. "Are you at least going to get me a shirt?" She asked caustically.

"Uh…yeah. Sorry." Trunks finished lamely as he got off the bed and searched through his dresser for a tee-shirt. _She's so small compared to me that she'll be swimming in it, but I'm sure I'd be demanding clothing if I were in her shoes. _"Found one," Trunks said, feeling his composure returning slowly. _I swear, she always knows how to rattle me. How does she do that?_

Pan harrumphed, and Trunks was immediately reminded of more than one occasion on their grand tour. _Hmm…bad temper, bossy, and not looking at me…that means she's either got cabin fever or she's upset about something._ He almost smacked his palm against his head as he remembered the obvious reason for her to be upset. _Duh, moron!_ He scolded himself. _She's mad because you're leaving._

As he walked back to the bed, he tried to sort out what was going on. Starting with Branford's stunning announcement earlier that morning, things seemed to be spiraling more and more out of control every moment. Marron was risking her life and temporal cohesion itself, He was running around causing small and not so small disasters everywhere he went, Pan was sticking to him like glue, and his father was sitting downstairs, more than likely plotting a painful and lingering demise for him. Even his mom flipped out at him today. _And what was up with Bra's comment about having other things on my mind tonight…?_

The answer hit him with a shock so profound that he couldn't breathe for a moment. He looked over at the dark-haired girl in his bed with a new understanding of the situation. _I must have been blind…I still would be if it weren't for Bra._ He shook his head to clear it, but all of the pieces to the puzzle clicked into place for him, and the answer wouldn't go away, no matter how much he wanted it to.

He saw Pan's silhouette as she sat up with the blanket still wrapped around her. "Are you going to give me that, or what?" She asked sarcastically.

Trunks forced himself to move, breaking the paralysis that held him. He sat heavily on the bed, and handed her the shirt. "About time…" She muttered as she dove under the covers and came back up with the oversized shirt on.

Trunks had no idea what to do with his new insight, but he knew that things would get worse if he didn't do **something** about the situation. A simple idea came to him, and he found himself doing it almost as soon as it occurred to him.

He reached out and took one of Pan's hands in his and kissed it. "I'm sorry," He whispered.

For a very long moment, Trunks was sure that he'd made a mistake. Then felt Pan tug her hand back, and then the moment was over.

Trunks couldn't see Pan's eyes in the dark, but he still felt her mood shift. "Why do you have to go?!" Pan suddenly screamed at him.

The question was not what he was expecting her to say, but it wasn't totally unexpected, either. "I told you, I have to," Trunks started patiently.

"No!" She screamed again. "I want to know the **real** reason you're going!" She paused to get her breath back, and continued more quietly. "I know you. That isn't going to work on me."

Trunks winced. _It figures that she knows I'm lying. Some god or goddess must be having a good laugh at my expense._ He shook his head in disgust. _Why me? On this, of all days?!_

"Fine. It doesn't have to be me," Trunks admitted flatly. "My dad could do it. I won't let him."

He could feel the shock from Pan. "Why are you doing this to me…?" She asked in a tearful voice. "Why are you doing this at all…?"

"Pan, I hate to tell you this, but you have a long way to go before you can fight at our level." Trunks said the words with a distant sense of loss. "You may be able to read me sometimes, but you have to be able to understand the entire situation before you can pass judgment on me or anyone."

"Goku and Master Roshi both told me that everything that happens in the universe is connected, 'There is no coincidence.'"

"They're right. I owe the Trunks from the future a debt. That is not a coincidence. He saved me and my mother from Dr. Gero, while my dad was apparently showing off at the time."

"There are any number of reasons that I should be the one to go. If you want the truth, though…I want to."

"You selfish bastard…" She said in a low growl.

Trunks smirked, even though he knew she couldn't see it. She would hear it in his voice, anyway. "None of that name-calling, now. This is partially your fault, you know. I had no idea what to do earlier…not until you helped me out of that grave I dug for myself. I'm alive again…and I feel it."

Trunks felt the slap coming, and slipped sideways, feeling the breeze caused by the passing of her hand. It was all very surreal, in Trunks' mind. _This whole day has been nothing but surprises._

"Pan, stop." He said calmly.

"Why should I?!"

He sighed softly. "'There are no coincidences.'"

"You already used that excuse!" She spat venomously at him.

"That's why I love you." Trunks said it gently, ignoring her comment.

Pan was silent, but no more slaps came from her direction. Trunks waited patiently, knowing that Pan had waited far longer to hear those words from him.

The minutes dragged on, and still the measuring silence prevailed.

"Trunks Vegeta Briefs…" Pan stated in an intense voice. "If you're lying to me right now, you will regret it in a way you've never regretted anything in your life. Turn the lights on, and say it again." The suppressed emotions in her voice were almost terrifying to hear.

Trunks grabbed the remote, and turned the lights on. The first instant was blinding for both of them, but Pan recovered before Trunks did. When his eyes finally adjusted, he saw tears in Pan's eyes, but they framed a face full of livid anger.

He knew was treading on dangerous ground. Her threat was very real, and she knew enough about how he fought to know that such a lie was not beyond him. He wasn't afraid, though. He simply had to tell her in a way that she couldn't misconstrue.

He put his hands out with his palms upward, silently asking for her hands with his eyes. He made sure that he was looking right into her eyes, not using his usual trick to make them unreadable. Pan looked at him with distrust and anger, but he saw something change. She thrust her hands into his, and he felt her rage through the almost unwilling contact on her part.

Trunks looked at her, and felt her though her hands. She was not unlike the storm that had followed them home. Chaos, barely caged, seethed beneath her surface. _Who knows how much of her hopes and dreams are pinned on this. Unfortunately, her doubts and fears are just as strong._ He felt a devastating sense of awe when he realized how much she loved him.

He closed his eyes as he opened the door to his feelings for her. He realized that now was not the time for half efforts or mere words. He felt again the strange warmth he'd always felt when he'd been with her as a child. The comfortable closeness, the admiration he'd felt when she'd beaten Goten at the tournament, and the tenderness and wonder he'd felt when he held her while she slept.

He remembered how she'd been on their grand tour. She had always been a shining presence, and even though she caused him no end of trouble, he knew that it wouldn't have been much fun if she hadn't decided to be a stow-away. He acknowledged the quiet love that had been growing between the two of them as time passed.

As Trunks sifted through his memories, he decided that he'd known all along how she felt. He'd felt the same…he might even have loved her more. He'd made a decision a long time ago not to feel that way about her. _Fate doesn't give up so easily, I suppose._ It was for her own good. He was too old for her.

She deserved to hear the truth, though. Even if there could never be such a relationship between the two of them.

Trunks opened his eyes, and allowed himself to feel all the love that he felt for Pan.

"I…" Trunks said as he lifted his left hand so that he could kiss her right one.

"Love…" He continued as he kissed her other hand.

"You…" He finished, and kissed her lightly on the lips to finish.


	6. Not a party

A/N: Thanks for all the nice reviews, everyone! 

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT

* * *

Tomorrow Waits for Us 

Chapter 6

* * *

Silence. 

Silence, and small hands touching his own.

This was the world that Trunks inhabited. All that seemed to exist were Pan's hands.

He'd closed his eyes as he kissed her, and they were closed still. Darkness, silence, and the touch of two hands.

"Beat...beat...beat." His heartbeat intruded on his consciousness.

"Beat-beat, beat-beat, beat-beat." Pan's rapid heartbeat mixed with the sound of his.

The slither of bedding interrupted the silence, but it was a faint sound. He felt Pan's hands shift in his own, but this time she wasn't tugging them away.

Soft lips touched his briefly.

"I'm sorry I doubted you, Trunks." Pan said softly, her previous anger burned down to smoky ashes, leaving an aftertaste of regret. "I had no right to say those things to you."

Trunks opened his eyes to see Pan looking infinitely sad. His heart ached to see her in such a state. He pulled her into a hug, but was silent. _I can't say anything...I buried these feelings for a reason._ Now that the feelings were out again, Trunks feared that he would give in to them.

"Knock, knock!"

The silence shattered like a fishbowl hitting astone floor.

"Bro! Are you in there! Mom's looking for you!" Bra sounded winded.

Trunks let go of Pan, regretting that he couldn't do anything to reassure her. Pan looked irritated by the interruption. "Yeah, I'm here. What's Mom's problem?"

Bra opened the door, and poked her head in. "Mom wants to know where..." Her words trailed off as she noted Pan's general state of undress and his closeness to her on the bed. "Hmm. I'll tell Mom you're busy." She winked at Trunks, looking smug before closing the door.

"Bra!"

"What!" She called to him through the door.

"Tell Mom I'll be down in a few minutes!"

"Ok, but I have no idea why you'd want to!" She said, slyly insinuating the other things they could be doing.

"I'll take that under advisement," Trunks said dryly.

* * *

After Bra's interruption, Trunks turned and found Pan grumbling to herself. "I can stay here, if you want me to," Trunks offered. 

"No." She breathed out a long sigh. "You should go to the party."

It was Trunks' turn to be puzzled. "Aren't you coming?"

Pan sighed gustily. "It's not the same without Grandpa. We try, but the spirit isn't there anymore.I know that Goten hates it, too."

"What's wrong with Goten?"

Pan looked at him as if he were stupid. "Goten misses Grandpa. It's no big surprise. He wasn't there for the first few years of Goten's life...BY CHOICE!" She said bitterly. "Then he ran off to train Uub." She chuckled darkly. "Uub isn't even strong enough to be the planet's defender, so that was a waste if ever there was one. Goten can't seem to get over it, though." Pan looked sad. "He really bothers me with his behavior, but I know that it isn't his fault. I love my Grandpa, but why did he do so many selfish things?"

Trunks pondered that for a moment. Goku never _looked_ like he was doing anything selfish, but Trunks was a master of deception himself. "Goku.was the way he was. Just like my dad. Maybe it's a Saiyan thing. Maybe they didn't see anything wrong with they way they were. I guess nobody is ever completely good, or completely evil. That's all I can think of."

Pan's eyes took on a sly gleam. "So, what have you done lately that's evil, since nobody's perfect?"

_I wanted to take advantage of a seventeen-year old girl._ "I lied to Marron today. Does that count?" He asked flippantly.

She looked at him in surprise. "About what!"

"I told her that it wasn't possible for Buu to be resurrected in the other dimension."

"And she bought it! That's the most transparent lie I've ever heard!"

He smiled smugly. "Not the way I told her. Besides, I had help from your dad. It all sounded plausible when I stitched it together with one of his old stories." He paused. "What about you, Ms. Perfect?"

She scowled at him and then blushed. "I tried to slap you, didn't I? What more do you want!"

Trunks chuckled. Then he frowned at the still clammy Gi he was wearing. "I'm taking a shower, whether I'm going downstairs or not."

"Fine. Just leave me here with nothing to do." She mock pouted at him.

Trunks gave her an amused look. "This is your house too. You know that. Help yourself. You can probably raid Bra's room for clothes if you need to. I doubt she'd care."

* * *

As Trunks was taking a shower, he was considering what he was going to say at the party. _I guess I should just go down there and spit it out, but that wouldn't be fair to Marron._ Trunks knew that Marron had literally poured her heart and soul into the project, much the way that the alternate world's Bulma had when she built the time machine she called "Hope." _This is her night. I have to make sure she gets all the attention she deserves._

As Trunks stepped out of the shower and toweled off, he imagined that Pan was watching a movie on his bed. As he walked back into his room, emptiness greeted him. _She must be getting clothes in Bra's room._

Trunks grabbed some nice-ish clothes from his closet, and dressed as fast as he could. _I hope they haven't all gone home already._ As he walked down the hallway to atrium where they usually held parties, he started to hear muted chatter. _Good, it doesn't sound like the party is winding down yet._ He stopped in one of the guest rooms, and checked himself over in the mirror.

He straightened the sleeves of the black shirt he was wearing and adjusted the collar. _Darn, forgot the belt...and the shoes._ He opted to leave the shirt untucked, but didn't know what to do about the lack of shoes. _I guess I'll have to go back. Good thing I checked before going down there._

When he walked back into his room, he heard the sounds of soft singing, along with the sounds of a bath running. He saw his shirt and the underwear Pan was wearing carelessly dropped on the floor on the way to the bathroom. He resisted the temptation to peek and searched under his bed for shoes.

The sounds of running water ceased, allowing Trunks to hear the song that Pan was singing.

_All we have is this moment  
The past is gone  
The future will never come _

_Why do you hide from me?_

_In the past I've waited  
The sands of time  
Flowing though my fingers_

_All I have is now..._

Pan's voice was haunting, conveying a strange mixture of hope and loss.

Trunks pulled on his second shoe and quietly left the room.

* * *

Trunks walked into the atrium where the party was being held. The roof was covered with a glass dome, but the brilliant stars were clearly visible through it. The large indoor area was like a garden, with grass and ornamental trees. Small, round tables were scattered randomly around the area, and hedges acted as partitions for those who wanted a bit of privacy. Areas like theses had once been the living areas for the thousands of pets his grandfather and grandmother had rescued. They'd all perished in Li Shenron's planetwide attack, and Trunks and Bulma didn't have the time to take care of new ones. Trunks could almost sense the ghostly presences, and hear the phantom chirps and meows. _Damn Li Shenron. Damn him to the coldest reaches of Hell._

"Oh, Trunks! There you are! Where have you been!" Bulma greeted her son in a less than amiable fashion. He was used to it.

"I had something to take care of, Mom." Trunks replied absently. He looked around the open atrium in the center of the building, noting that Gohan and Videl were at one of the tables, both with a glass of champagne. His father was sitting against one of the palm trees, apparently deep in thought. Chi-Chi was fussing over the food, and Goten was laying on the ground, staring at the stars. There was a palpable aura of depression radiating from him. Trunks was shocked. _I must have been deep in my own grave not to notice Goten's condition._ Pan was right. He had no idea how he'd missed how messed up Goten was.

"...And I don't know how you're planning on..." Bulma trailed off as Trunks started to walk over to Goten. "Trunks!"

Trunks turned back to her. "What, Mom?"

"Where are you going!"

A smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. "I'll go greet everyone, and then I have an announcement to make. Fair?"

His mom frowned at him. "You're acting weird today! You and I are going to talk about this later!"

_Great. Just what I need today. Hopefully she'll drop the issue after the announcement._ "Fine."

As he walked over to Goten, he found the dark-haired youth staring at the night sky.

"Hey Goten." Trunks said quietly, taking a seat next to his old friend.

Goten looked over with a vacant stare, and then brightened slightly. "Hey Trunks."

Trunks stared at the brilliant stars, but couldn't really pick out the patterns. Astronomy wasn't his thing. "So, where do you think Goku is up there?" Trunks asked his childhood friend.

Trunks could feel Goten's frown, even if he couldn't see it. "Wherever he is, it isn't here." Goten answered bitterly.

Trunks smirked and glanced at his contemplative father. "I wouldn't know ANYTHING about what that's like."

Goten surprisingly chuckled. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Vegeta's the only person I know other than dad who can be in a room with you and totally not be there."

Trunks laughed hard at that, remembering Goku's constant daydreaming on the hunt of the dragonballs. "I keep thinking Goku's going to pop out of thin air and say 'Hey!' or something, and then ask where the food is."

Goten grew somber then. "I want to believe that too, but Dad doesnt take short trips. Who knows how long he'll be away this time?"

Trunks didn't know what to say to his friend. He knew what it was like not to have a father, but "Toughen up and get on with your life!" wasn't what he would have like to have heard in his friend's position.

"Goku will come back if he can." Trunks said, almost to himself.

Goten looked over at Trunks. "You think so?"

Trunks thought about it. _Are we futility trying to keep him alive in our minds, or is he really just away on another adventure?_ "Yeah. I don't think he wanted to go, this time."

Goten sighed. "I hope you're right."

Geez, he really has it bad. "Did Bra stop by to harass you, yet?

Goten chuckled. "Not yet. Your Mom was upset that you weren't here, and come to think of it, Vegeta's been in a bad mood too." He he glanced up with a serious expression. "Was that you, earlier?"

Trunks restrained his shock. _Of course he could feel it. Everyone here probably did._ "Guilty as charged," Trunks answered wryly.

Goten was wearing a serious expression. "Why?"

Trunks made a face. "It's my problem, Goten. I wouldn't be any kind of a friend if I dragged you into this."

Goten smirked. "Any trouble that big will be everyone's problem."

"No." Trunks shook his head. "The trouble isn't here. Don't worry about it."

"Ok, it's your funeral."

"Thanks." Trunks said with mild sarcasm. He stared at Goten thoughtfully. "Are you dating anyone right now?"

"Not really." He looked over at Trunks curiously. "I never see you with a girl. How come?"

"I'm too picky," He answered easily.

"That I'll believe," Goten smiled. "I don't even see you out fishing, though."

Trunks laughed sarcastically. "That's because I don't have to. I swear that gold diggers can tell how much you're worth with one look. I'm sick of airheads and girls that just want my money."

"That's funny, considering that money wasn't worth anything six months ago." Goten's eyes darkened with a distant pain.

"I'm sorry about Paris, Goten."

Goten sighed. "It's a bad memory, Trunks, but no one did more than you to try and save everyone. I just miss her."

Trunks reflected again on Li Shenron's legacy. Paris died a year ago from one of the many waves of sickness that followed the dragon's defeat. _That was no dragon..._ he reflected bitterly._ Li Shenron was a perversion._

Trunks shook off the dark thoughts. "C'mon, Goten! Dinner awaits!"

Goten grinned lopsidedly. "Finally we come to a subject I like!"

* * *

Trunks listened to the faint sound of rain on the glass roof as he helped himself to the buffet that the caterers were setting out. He found himself next to Gohan as he was browsing the choices. "Hey Gohan, Videl!" He nodded politely to the middle-aged couple. 

Gohan smiled slightly. "Trunks! What have you been up to?"

Trunks smiled wryly. "Work." Videl was wearing a stunning black dress, and Gohan was in a tuxedo. "You're both looking well."

"Thank you, Trunks." Videl said in her usual understated fashion. Trunks sometimes had trouble reconciling the loud and sometimes obnoxious teenager he remembered from his youth with the solemn and self-possessed woman that stood before him. She gave him a penetrating glance. "You seem a bit frayed around the edges." Trunks chuckled inwardly, laughing as much at himself as Videl's perceptiveness. He'd had a crush on her when he was younger, so she still had an odd effect on him now and then. _It's ironic that she thought Goten and I were cute when we fused. I was so full of myself at the time that I barely noticed..._

He mock sighed. "I'm afraid your lovely daughter's to blame..."

Videl and Gohan both looked stunned for a moment, but as Videl started to open her mouth to ask what Pan had done this time, Gohan started laughing. Then Videl saw Trunks' small smile.

"Oh, you!" Videl exclaimed, hitting him lightly on the shoulder. "You had me going for a minute!"

Gohan's mirth faded to chuckles. "You never change, Trunks!"

Trunks smirked at him, a perfect copy of Vegeta's. Gohan frowned at Trunks' sudden change of mood, and Videl seemed just as unnerved by the uncharacteristic reply as well. Gohan looked him over, more closely this time. "I guess things do change, huh Trunks?" Gohan said, now deadly serious.

Trunks' smirk faded into a laughing grin. "Yeah. You aren't a dork anymore, and I'm not an arrogant idiot."

Gohan frowned at him, but it smoothed into a wry smile. "You'll never let me live that whole Saiyaman thing down, will you?"

Trunks felt a kinship with Gohan now that he hadn't felt before. He could see the damage in the older Saiyan's eyes, both from the battles he fought and from the ridicule he'd endured in his younger life. Trunks could still picture how scared he'd looked when Buu had absorbed Piccolo and Gotenks. Even at the top of his power, Piccolo and all the others who'd condemned him in the past still brought him down. Trunks decided to forgive him.

Even if he HAD been a total geek.

Trunks laughed to break the tense moment. "You were having fun, right? What's wrong with that?" He smiled at Videl. "Tell me you didn't enjoy being Saiyaman 2."

Videl colored and laughed a bit in embarrassment. "You're right, it was fun."

Gohan wasn't amused. His eyes were very narrow at that point. "Something happened, didn't it Trunks?"

Trunks sighed, then smiled in bittersweet sadness. "Yes. Pan is an amazing girl."

Videl blinked. Gohan stared. Trunks felt like a total idiot for putting it that way, but he wasn't about to back down about it. Trunks smiled a twisted smile to the stunned parents. "Don't worry. I don't plan on doing anything about it." He paused, trying to find the correct words. "She helped me see something in myself today...something I was missing."

Gohan recovered first. He sized Trunks up again. "You HAVE changed...it was you earlier, wasn't it?"

"Yeah."

"What was it like?"

Trunks smiled blissfully. "I''m sure you feel it every time you tap into the powers the Old Kai catalyzed in you."

"I'm proud of you, Trunks. I know my dad would have been too, if he were here." Gohan frowned. "Why though?"

Trunks frowned. "You'll find out soon. Something's come up." When he saw Gohan and Videl sharing worried glances, he spoke up again. "Don't worry about it. It's not what you'd call close to home."

Videl shivered. "It'd better not be. You Saiyans don't attract small problems...they all have to be big enough to threaten the universe." She put a hand on Gohan's arm to take the sting out of her words. "By the way," Videl asked with deceptive casualness "Where is Pan right now?"

Trunks wasn't fooled by Videl's seeming mildness. _This is just great. "She's in my room, taking a bath." Yeah, that'll go over well._ Trunks kept his face smooth and his eyes mirrored. "She was training with my Father this morning. I think she's in Bra's room," He lied smoothly.

"Really..." Videl said, just as smoothly. "You're sure?"

"Not really." Trunks bit his tongue, trying not to say anything that would give the wrong idea about the situation. "That was just the last place she was headed."

Gohan watched his wife and Trunks' verbal sparring, not comprehending what was going on, but gave up after a moment as he began selecting food from the buffet.

Videl was watching Trunks carefully. "Do you mind if I go looking for her?" She asked innocently.

_Oh Dende, NO!_ Trunks screamed mentally. _How do I get myself into these messes!_ He continued to keep his expression unconcerned. "Of course not. Would you like me to help you find her?" He asked with false enthusiasm.

Videl's expression brightened, but her eyes were still hard. "If you could spare a moment, I think we should." She looked over her shoulder. "Gohan, could you get me something to eat? I'm going to look for Pan!"

"Of course, Honey."

* * *

Trunks and Videl headed back to the living area of the Capsule Corp. building. Trunks was not looking forward to what was going to happen when they got to his room. Videl walked beside him, her presence feeling like a lightning bolt seeking a target. Trunks began to feel stupid at that point. _I have nothing to hide...but the situation with Pan could easily be taken the wrong way._

The background noise of the party faded into the background as they approached the living area. Videl abruptly stopped.

"Care to explain what's going on?" She asked him.

"Not in any great detail." Trunks replied coolly.

Videl cocked her head sideways. "You aren't doing much to reassure me, Trunks. I want to know if Pan is in danger."

Trunks shook his head disgustedly. "You and Gohan would be the first to know if she were." He gave her a suspicious look. "What do you really want to know?"

Videl stood her ground. "Did you or didn't you?"

"Mother!" Came Pan's surprising shout. She was walking down the corridor wearing her freshly washed street clothes. She looked more intense than usual. "Trunks, don't answer that."

Trunks spoke quietly after a deliberate pause. "You're right, Pan. No comment." He looked at Videl significantly. "One shouldn't be necessary."

Videl looked like she wanted to say something, but a tense and dangerous silence prevailed. Pan walked over to her mom, and took her hand. "C'mon, Mom. Let's go find Dad."

* * *

"Interesting." 

Trunks turned around To see Vegeta walk out of the shadows of the one of the nearby doorways. Pan and Videl were just out of hearing range, on their way back to the Party. Trunks smirked at Vegeta's attempt to startle him. "Really?What part?"

Vegeta lookedsurprisedat Trunks'lack of reaction. His eyes suddenly narrowed. "So, Gohan was right. You've changed."

Trunks smirked harder. "Don't be too sure about that. I might not have changed at all."

"Don't play with me! What's going on!"

Trunks frowned at him in annoyance. "I was just about to announce it. Marron finished building the time machine."

"So what! She did that last year!"

Trunks glared at him. "Not that one. This one works."

Vegeta paled and clenched his fists. "She didn't..."

"Oh, yes." Trunks gave him a moment to let the information sink in. "I assume you grasp the problem?"

Vegeta glared out the window. "You'd better be in complete control of the situation. If Li Shenron finds a way into this dimension, I'm holding you and that stupid girl personally responsible!"

"Relax, it's covered. Besides, they're at least three wishes behind right now. I'm more worried about Babidi...I have no idea why he hasn't shown up there, yet."

Vegeta turned back from the window to glare back at him. "How are you planning to beat Buu if he's there?"

"The way Goku should have. I've ascended to Super Saiyan 3."

"We'll talk about this tomorrow." Vegeta had a faraway look in his eyes as he slowly walked off.


	7. The announcement

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT

* * *

Chapter 7

* * *

Trunks was walking back to the party when he saw a small, brown-skinned boy walking in. "Uub!"

Uub turned around. "Oh! Hi Trunks."

"I wasn't expecting you here, tonight."

Uub blushed. "Your mother insisted."

Trunks chuckled. "I know what that's like." He paused for a moment. "You're just in time. Let me show you the way."

Uub nodded doubtfully. Trunks understood his position. Goku had choosen him as the planet's defender because of his incredible potential- he was after all the reincarnation of Majin Buu. Uub was painfully shy, however.

"It's ok, Uub. No strangers here tonight."

Uub visibly relaxed. "Thanks Trunks. I still can't handle crowds, but your mom wouldn't take no for an answer!"

As Trunks walked back into the atrium, he noticed more people there. He waved to Krillin and nodded politely to 18. Marron was with them, no doubt chatting to them about her work at Capsule Corp. Gohan, Videl and Pan were eating dinner at one of the tables. Chi-Chi and Goten were still browsing through the buffet. Vegeta was, of course, absent but his mom was sipping an ice-cream soda where he'd been previously sitting. _Perfect._

Trunks led Uub to the buffet table, and grabbed a glass of champagne. "May I have everyone's attention?"

The quiet buzz of conversation quickly faded away. "I'm glad all of you could be here this evening. I'm afraid I'm going to have to steal this party from you, mom."

Bulma stuck her tongue out at him. Everyone laughed.

"It's been a hard two years." He paused for effect. Faces around the room darkened, and eyes became haunted. "I'm pleased to announce the contents of a report I received today. The last of the damage caused by Li Shenron has been dealt with."

Smiles grew all around the room. Pan cheered.

"This was a monumental effort, and it wouldn't have been possible without the help of all of you. I'd especially like to thank Uub." Uub blushed as all of the attention turned to him. "Without you, a lot of people would have starved."

After the applause for Uub died out, Trunks continued. "Uub wasn't the only one who made a significant contribution to our success. Mom, can you come up here?" Bulma looked surprised, but put her glass down and walked up to the main table. "Mom coordinated almost all of the relief effort, and directed the rebuilding of most of the power plants and water systems in the western continent. I'd like to make a toast, to my mother, for always being there when we need her!"

"Cheers!" Came the resounding cry.

"Thank you, Thank you!" Bulma said graciously. Oddly, Goten stood up.

"If I could steal the floor from you for a minute?" Goten asked hesitantly.

"Of course." Trunks said as he moved aside.

Goten took Trunks' place. "I want to apologize to you, Trunks."

Trunks' jaw dropped. "That isn't necess..."

"Yes it is." Goten cut him off. "I was rude to you when this all started. I couldn't imagine how sitting behind a desk was going to help us. Yet, somehow you brought us all through this."

Goten stared off into space. "You've always been a good planner. You come up with a strategy, and stick with it until the end. That's your strength and your weakness. This time, we're all alive because of you. A toast to Trunks! The real hero of this crisis!"

Trunks flushed at the cheering and clapping that followed. He felt warm all over from their appreciation. After a moment, he shook it off. He slapped Goten on the back in appreciation, and turned back to the crowd.

"Even given the accomplishments so far, someone here has been working harder than any of us. She was given the most difficult and important job, and she came through, not once, but twice. Marron would you come up here?"

The blonde girl left her parents' side and walked up to where Trunks was standing. "Marron, along with some of the best engineers at Capsule Corp., has reconstructed the Time machine that Cell used to come here." There were gasps in among those present, but oddly Krillin and 18 looked the most shocked. _I guess she didn't tell them. That's a bit of a surprise._ "The original time machine could only make stable trips to the past, but a new prototype that she built has been modified so that it could potentially go anywhere."

"Some of you may be thinking "Why is that so important?" The answer is that if we hadn't been able to repair the damage Li Shenron did, some of us could go back and prevent him from ever being summoned. Marron gave us the possibility of survival, even if everything else went wrong. Let's all show our appreciation for Marron's efforts."

The applause this time had no cheers mixed in. Pan looked subdued, but everyone clapped formally for Marron, and she bowed her head, tears streaming down her face. "Thank you, all. I don't deserve this. All of you have given so much..."

"Nonsense." Bulma interupted her with a gentle smile. "Come with me, dear." She led Marron out of the courtyard so that she could compose herself.

"Anyway, I have one more important annoucement, and then I'll leave you to dinner." Laughter and cheering broke out. "Hey, I'm not THAT bad, am I?"

"Hey! Get to the point, drama queen!" Pan shouted playfully.

"Yeah, Mr. I'm Sooo Important!" Krillin added with a grin.

"Ok. Marron's time machine can go to different dimensions. Marron and I will be leaving in a few days to check on the other Trunks and Bulma from the alternate timeline."

Dead silence greeted Trunks' announcement. Gohan, Goten and 18 looked disturbed. Luckily his mom was out of the room at the time, or she'd have probably said something unladylike. Trunks glanced around the room, and saw Bra, who had apparently arrived during the announcement. She looked stricken.

"That's all I have for tonight. Enjoy yourselves, everyone! Remember that we have enough rooms for anyone who'd like to stay over."

Trunks turned his back on the stunned silence he'd created, casually grabbing a plate and began picking out his dinner choices. The silence slowly returned to muted conversations, and Trunks could almost hear the word "why" being asked in all of the conversations. After he was done filling his plate, he looked over to see whether he could eat with Pan and her parents, but there seemed to be a heated discussion going at their table. When he saw Bra out of the corner of his eye, he decided to go sit with her.

She was leaning against a wall, looking no less stricken than before. "Are you ok, Bra?" Trunks asked.

Her eyes focused on him. "No!" She whispered fiercely, tears in her voice. "What do you think you're doing!"

"Hopefully, the right thing." He responded, beginning to eat.

"You're going to get yourself killed, aren't you!" Bra responded angrily to his utter calm.

"That wasn't what I had in mind."

Bra took a deep breath. "Mom's going to kill you, you know."

"I hope not, but I wouldn't blame her for feeling that way."

"What's wrong with you!"

Trunks sighed. "Can we talk about his later? When we don't have an audience?"

Bra looked around, and noticed that everyone was covertly watching them, with the exception of Gohan and company. "Sorry," She whispered. "What's going on with Pan's family?"

Trunks stole a glance at the still squabbling trio. "Pan's mad at me about the trip. Videl thinks I slept with Pan. Gohan's stuck with two angry women."

Bra blinked, and then laughed. "I'm getting something to eat. Save my spot."

* * *

Trunks ate quietly, feeling completely at peace for the first time in years. Despite the chaos his announcement caused, he had no misgivings about what he was going to do. He looked around the room at the odd gathering of people. _I'm going to miss them._ He went through a mental catalogue. _Hmm...Pan wouldn't be here, neither would Bra._ He saw 18 flirting with Krillin. _She wouldn't be here either and because of that, no Marron._ He saw Gohan and Videl had settled down, but Pan was sending death glares at him. _No Gohan, and Videl probably wouldn't be here either._ Uub was eating with Goten, looking as if they were discussing something serious. _Scratch off two more. Oh, wait, I'm dead too._

A very empty room, if not for what the other Trunks did.

"Trunks! I'm so happy to hear what you're doing!"

Trunks was startled out of his musing by his mom. _Did I hear that right!_ Trunks firmly got a hold of himself. _Of course she'd be happy. She asked me to do this, after all._ "Thanks Mom. How's Marron doing?"

Bulma smiled. "She's just been working too hard. I brought her back to her room. When are you leaving?"

Trunks frowned. "I'm not sure yet. I think we'll leave in about three days."

"Alright. I'll get all of the supplies you'll need, including medicine samples to take with you."

"Thanks Mom." Trunks noticed Bra coming back. "Hey Mom, you're in Bra's spot," He said with a playful grin.

Bulma mock scowled at him. "So you like her more than me, eh? I'll leave you two alone, then!"

Bulma walked off to talk with Chi-Chi, while Bra sat back down. "She was in a good mood," Bra said in a neutral fashion.

"Yeah." _It's not like Mom to miss the obvious, but I'm glad that she's happy._ Trunks continued to eat, trying savor the moment rather than dwell on future problems.

"I'm curious...did you sleep with Pan?"

"Why don't just ask that in front of a shareholder's meeting at Capsule Corp.?"

Bra flushed. "Sorry…again. But did you?"

Trunks stared at Pan thoughtfully. "I won't say that I wasn't tempted. But no, I didn't."

"That's too bad."

Trunks jaw dropped. "What...?"

Bra smirked at him. "Pan and I played truth or dare when we were younger. It's amazing what you learn about a person when you play that."

Trunks blushed when he thought about what might have transpired during that game. "I wondered why you looked so smug earlier."

Bra waved a hand. "I knew how Pan felt, even before that. You, on the other hand, are a little harder to read. I was pretty sure what was going on in your head when you never settled down with anyone. I knew it when I saw you two together earlier. I'm happy for you two."

"It's not going to happen."

Bra looked bewildered. "What do you mean? You love her. She loves you. I'm not seeing a problem here."

"We'll talk about it later."

Bra glanced around, but other than Pan, nobody seemed to be paying attention to them. "Ok."

* * *

The celebration went on for hours. Most of the people there were feeling a happy release from the stress that had plagued them since even before the Shadow Dragons almost destroyed the Earth. Trunks and Bra spent the time in a companionable silence, each knowing that they would soon be separated for an unknown period. Trunks was thankful for Bra's perceptiveness, even if it was going to lead to an argument later.

Pan, Gohan and Videl unexpectedly left after the first hour, politely thanking Trunks for inviting them. He assured all of them that they were welcome any time. He made a special point to say it directly to Videl, as he could understand where she was coming from about the situation with Pan. The offer surprised her, and seemed to take the edge off of her dark anger from earlier.

At somewhere around eleven, Trunks decided that he and Bra needed to have the chat he put off earlier. Bra was nodding a bit, both because of the hour, and because of the three glasses of red wine she'd had. Rather than be drunk, she seemed to be in a state of lucid clarity. She readily accepted his offer to leave the party, and as they were leaving, they waved amiably to the others, assuring them that they could continue as long as they'd like.

When they reached his room, Bra flopped on his bed. It was sort of a ritual.

"Ok, bro. Now why are you going away for an undisclosed amount of time to a parallel world and not staying here to get married with Pan?"

Trunks chuckled. Bra had a talent of summing huge concepts up in a single sentence. "Hmm…to answer your first question, Marron thinks that something horrible is going to happen in the other timeline, or rather, should have already." He paused thoughtfully. "As to the other thing, Pan deserves someone her own age. Someone who won't be running off to deal with that other thing I mentioned. She should live a safe and happy life. She's already had to play hero enough times."

Bra raised an eyebrow. "The same could be said of you, Trunks." She sighed. "I hate when you're so damn noble. It's almost as bad as when you're being a stubborn ass." Trunks was shocked by his sister's words. "Stop trying to be perfect for a minute. You're going to hurt Pan by ignoring what she needs, in favor of what you think should happen."

"Bra, she's underage! She's not even eighteen yet!"

Bra sighed in irritation. "A technicality. She'll be eighteen in two months. By the laws of the Earth, and by Saiyan traditions, she can be married right now if she chooses." She pointed a finger at him. "What are you hiding from? You aren't giving me solid excuses as to why you won't return her love."

"Why are you pushing me about this, Bra?"

"Because a very sad girl once asked me whether she had a chance with someone as good as you!" She shouted at him. "And you know what? I told her that she did! Because I think she's worthy!"

"No one else offered to help Goku fight the Shadow Dragons. He may have insisted he could do it himself, but he was being just as stubborn about it as you are about this or dad is about just about anything!" She paused to take a breath.

"I want to know why you won't let her into your heart," She asked more calmly.

Trunks was startled by the depths of his sister's anger. "Alright." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "I'm probably going to be gone for at least two years, possibly three." His eyes went unfocused. "I don't know if I'm coming back."

"Why not!"

"Because something might happen that I didn't anticipate. Maybe I won't be strong enough. Maybe some piece of information I need won't be available. Maybe the bad guys will get lucky. Who knows?" He swallowed at the thought of what might happen to him. "What kind of person would I be if I made her wait for me…and I never returned?"

"The same kind of person you'll be if you turn your back on her right now."

Trunks frowned at her. "I told her how I felt today."

Bra's eyes were unrelenting. "Why? What prompted you to tell her?"

"I didn't know how she felt. I buried my feelings for her because she wasn't my age. Do you know how strange it is to love a girl that you babysat for?" Trunks shook his head. "It was your odd comment that made me see what she felt. I had to tell her at that point."

Bra sat on his bed, thinking. "Why are you throwing your life away?"

Trunks frowned at her. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I'm talking about. Dad always says that you can't win unless you know what you're up against. If you can't win, then your effort was wasted. You have no idea what you're dealing with, or you'd be able to tell me that you could win. Dad also says that those who go into battle before they're sure they can win are the ones who die."

"I don't want you to die, Trunks. I want you to come back safely. And I'm not the only one."

"Bra, I can't leave things the way they are now! Neither of us would be alive right now if the other Trunks and Bulma hadn't done anything!" He raked a hand through his hair. "I just don't know what to do about Bebi…"

Bra paled at the mention of the parasite that had almost killed all of them. "You're a bigger fool than I thought…but I can see why you don't want Pan involved." She turn onto her back and stared at the ceiling. "Here's the deal. If you don't come up with a better plan, I'm coming with you. No argument!" She said warningly as Trunks started to protest. "I don't want to go, but if you can't find a way to keep yourself alive, then I'll have to do it for you."

Bra stretched. "I'm up passed my bedtime, bro. You figure out something other than 'I'm taking them all on myself!' before you leave. Goku and Dad used to do that all the time. Don't forget that they also died on multiple occasions. You don't have that luxury!" Bra got up and left the room.

Trunks thoughts were long ones after his sister left. He turned his lights off, and stared into the darkness. _She's right. I have no idea how to insure that Marron and I will win. If only I had some kind of an edge…_


	8. An unexpected visitor

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT

* * *

Chapter 8

* * *

Trunks wasn't very tired after Bra left his room, but he knew he had a big day of preparations ahead of him, so he closed his eyes and let sleep overtake him.

"Hey!"

Trunks' eyes flew open, and he turned toward his open window.

It was Goku. The little Saiyan was sitting on his windowsill in his favorite blue fighting outfit, his tail twitching occasionally.

"Wha...?" Trunks stuttered, completely off balance.

Goku grinned at him with that angelic innocence he was known for. "Come on, Trunks! You can't have forgotten my name after this short a time."

Trunks chuckled. "Of course I know your name, Goku. I was just surprised to see you here."

Goku laughed like the child he was. "You don't think I'd go away and not watch over you guys, did you?" He made a face at Trunks. "No faith! No faith!"

"Why are you back?"

Goku's expression turned serious. "You caught my attention today by reaching Super Saiyan 3. I watched what happened after that. You were pretty slick with Pan!" He winked at Trunks.

Trunks turned bright red. "Tell me you weren't watching!"

"Yep. I saw it all!" Goku said with a grin. He stared out the window at the brilliant stars and the almost full moon. "I knew about it already. Just because I act dumb doesn't mean that I am. Besides, I would've had to have been blind on our trip for the Dragonballs not to see it."

Trunks gave up with a sigh. Goku may be smarter than he let on, but he was clueless about dealing with people's feelings. Chi-Chi could attest to that.

Goku turned back to him. "That's mean, Trunks, but I guess it's the truth."

Trunks stared. He'd forgotten that one of Goku's talents was reading minds. "I just don't understand, Goku. Goten, Chi-Chi and Pan miss you so much. Why are you always gone?"

Goku's expression darkened. "I guess that's fair, too." His gaze was unfocused, seeing faraway places.

"Trunks, I died two years ago."

Trunks looked at him uncomprehendingly. "You were alive when Shenron talked to you."

Goku shook his head. "Li Shenron killed me. I was lucky enough to destroy him, too. It was worth giving my life so that all of you could live." His gaze was pensive. "I wanted so much to return home...but my mistakes almost cost us the entire universe. Shenron made me pay for my failure to watch over the Dragonballs, and now I am Shenron's eternal guardian. I can't come back, Trunks."

Trunks shook his head. "No Goku! You shouldn't have to give your life away because of who you are!"

Goku cocked his head at Trunks. "You know something about this, don't you?" Goku paled "No WAY! That CAN'T be the answer! You and the others are wrong!"

Trunks sighed. "Marron and I visited Master Roshi. We asked him about his understanding of universal balance. We had to know why the Dragonablls failed."

"The Eldar Kai was lying to us. It wasn't our fault that the Dragonballs cracked. Kami gave us the wrong idea about how they work. We almost have to assume that he didn't know, since he had to flee Namek at such a young age." Goku had his hands on his ears, trying to block Trunks out. There was no refuge from the truth, however. "Goku, my Mom told me that Kami selected you as the guardian of the Dragonballs, and that he told you never to abuse them. From your point of view, you didn't."

"Master Roshi told us that you were the purest person he'd ever known, and because of that, you couldn't see why things couldn't always have a happy ending." Trunks sighed. "Oceanus Shenron almost killed you didn't he?"

"Yeah, he almost did..." Goku answered, despite his attempts to block Trunks out. He scratched his head, his eyes growing harder and sharper. "Why was he so powerful, Trunks? A wish for underwear shouldn't have caused that much trouble..."

Trunks sighed. "Mom told me that you wouldn't remember. It was a night of the full moon. You transformed into your ape form." He paused, making sure that Goku was paying attention. Comprehension gleamed in the little Saiyan's eyes. "Emperor Pilaf stole your Dragonballs. His wish was supposed to be to rule the world. Oolong interrupted his wish, and ended up with a pair of panties."

"It wasn't the wish that caused the problem, Goku. It was the suffering that had been averted by messing up Emperor Pilaf's wish. That was the first imbalance."

Goku's eyes were wide. "The Supreme Kai never explained it. You mean, every time we erased an evil action, the negative energy was absorbed the balls?"

"Yeah. Where else could it go? It wasn't in the physical world anymore." Trunks paused for a moment. "The proof was Nova Shenron. A completely selfish and evil wish gave birth to an honorable dragon that wound up being our ally. The Dragonballs Kami forged were flawed...just as he was, from what I understand."

"Porunga and the Namekian Dragonballs are the first copy, and this weakness was taken into account when they were crafted. Not only that, but each of the Namekian Elders that guarded the balls added their strength and abilities to Porunga. Wishes granted by Porunga are immediately balanced, either because they were designed that way, or because one of the Elders had the ability to cleanse negative forces."

Goku looked like his world was collapsing around him. Trunks had never seen him so unsettled, even when fighting Li Shenron. "Trunks, I had doubts about this ever since I was chosen by Kami, but to see them like this..."

Trunks sighed. "I know I'm making this out to be Piccolo's fault, but how was he supposed to know? He didn't even know he was a Namek until my Dad showed up on Earth." Trunks looked at the little boy seriously. "It's easy to point fingers after the fact, and I'm not happy with Piccolo for a number of reasons, but that's not the point. We can only work from today. You should come back to us. There's no reason you should be condemned to guard Shenron for all eternity."

Goku had tears in his eyes. "I heard what you were thinking, earlier. I was going to teach you a technique to give you an edge, but you've proven to be a better person than I ever gave you credit for. Please gather the Dragonballs of Namek, and wish me back to life. I've given away time that belonged to my wife and children. It's time I gave that back to them."

Trunks smiled through his own tears. "It will have to be in three years. You know we can't make the side trip right now. I promise that if I make it back, I'll wish you back to life."

Goku wiped the tears from his eyes, and the old spark was back. "You'll have the time to do it. I'm going to teach you the instant transmission technique, if you promise that my feet will be touching the earth tomorrow!"

Trunks laughed. "Promise!"

Goku hopped off the windowsill. "C'mon! You're going to love this!"

* * *

Goku and Trunks practiced all night. Trunks couldn't figure out why they didn't wake anyone up. As the dawn's light was coming, Trunks was getting used to changing his physical form into light and back again. Each time, they jumped farther and farther. They even ended up on Master Roshi's island, once.

Goku halted them. "It's time to go back, Trunks. You're a quick study. Let's see if you can bring both of us back to your house."

Trunks touched his two fingers to his forehead, and took Goku's hand. He focused on the energy of Bra, and made the jump.

They ended up outside of Bra's room. Goku put a sly finger to his lips to indicate silence. They drifted down the corridor to his room, hovering so that they wouldn't make a sound.

When they entered Trunks' room, Goku jumped onto his bed. "I'm proud of you, Trunks. I know you can do this! After you wish me back, I'll teach you the other technique."

Trunks smiled in amusement. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow!"

Goku smiled in pure joy. "I sure hope so. I've got to go."

* * *

Trunks woke up.

_What!_

He looked around his room. The clock read 6:36. Pan's Gi and the borrowed shirt were still on the floor. Bra's hairband was where she'd left it during their argument last night.

The window was closed.

_Was it all a dream?_

As Trunks shook off the grogginess, he realized that there was only one way to be sure. He forced his power level down, and mentally felt for Dende's energy. _There._

He touched the index and middle fingers of his right hand to his forehead, and concentrated the way Goku had shown him.

* * *

With a whisper of sound, Trunks was at the Guardian's Lookout.

Trunks heard rapid footsteps, and Mr. Popo and Dende appeared from the main building of the lookout.

"Trunks! What brings you here?" Dende asked in bewilderment. Mr. Popo seemed surprised as well, but seemed content to let the young Guardian of the Earth ask the questions.

Trunks felt a little bemused by his success. _It actually worked! What's going on here?_ "Hi Dende. I wasn't really expecting that to work." Trunks' mind was already formulating a plan, however. _Alright, Goku. Your feet **will** touch the Earth today._ "Hey Dende, can you help me with something later today?"

Dende looked uncertain, but nodded anyway. "Sure, how can I help?"

Trunks smiled at the young Guardian. "We're going to Namek."

Dende's eyes widened. "You're kidding!"

"Nope. We have something to take care of. I'd like your help with summoning Porunga."

Dende frowned. "What are you going to wish for?"

Trunks smirked. "What kind of surprise would it be if I told you?"

Dende crossed his arms. "No."

"I promise, you'll like it."

"Tell me what it is, then."

"No way. I'm sitting on the best news possible. I won't spoil this for you."

Dende gave him a suspicious look. "How am I supposed to trust you with Porunga?"

Trunks laughed. "Don't you have to be the one to speak the wish? If you don't like it, don't make it."

Dende's face smoothed. "Sorry for being suspicious, Trunks. The failure of the Dragonballs I was entrusted with makes me jumpy about all of them."

"I can understand that. Noon?"

"I'll be ready by then. It'll be nice to see home, again."

Trunks smiled. "I knew I could count on you, Dende. I'll be back later."

* * *

Trunks used the instant transmission technique to return home. Most of the people in the house were sleeping, but Trunks could feel massive energy pulses from the gravity room down the hall. _I wonder what's got him training at that level?_ His dad was giving off energy levels higher than Super Saiyan 2. Trunks shrugged it off and got in the shower, idly wondering how he felt so rested after the dream training he did with Goku last night.

After he was clean, he sorted through his closet looking for a suitable set of clothing. A black fighting uniform that he'd never worn caught his eye. _Don't know why, but I feel like wearing that today..._ He smiled slightly. _Why not?_

After he was dressed, he went down to the kitchen. A fabulous breakfast was laid out by the caterers from the previous night, and they were just cleaning up and preparing to leave. A cute young girl was cleaning up, and Trunks nodded to her. She blushed and ran off.

As Trunks sat down to eat, his mom came down the stairs, yawning. "Hi Trunks! You're up early."

"Good morning, Mother." Trunks said politely, smiling at the volatile, lavender-haired woman. "You're up early, too."

She sat down and poured some tea for herself. "I have to outfit the time machine today. Can you go get the prototype for me?"

Trunks shook his head. "I have something important to do today. I'll see if Marron will get it for you. It's her baby."

Bulma looked at him strangely. "Why are you taking her with you?"

Trunks made a face. "It'll be easier for me to keep an eye on her if I tell her she can go. She already made an unauthorized trip there."

Bulma dropped her teacup. "She did what...?" She asked in a breathless whisper.

Trunks sat back in his chair. "Yeah, I'm not too happy about it either. I probably shouldn't have told you, but now you know why she absolutely has to come. I think this should stay between you, me and Branford."

Bulma gnawed on a fingernail. "Yeah..." She frowned as she wiped up her spilled tea. "What kind of errand do you have to run?"

Trunks smirked. "It's a secret."

"Trunks, you know I hate when you do that!"

"I know, but I never do it for something small."

"Fine. Just be rude to your mother and keep her in the dark about things..."

Trunks laughed. "Trust me, you'll like this."

Bulma pushed back her shoulder-length hair. "It'd better be good."

"I agree." Answered a dark voice.

Trunks and his mom turned to see the Prince of the Saiyans. He was wearing a dark blue muscle shirt and matching pants. Trunks was more unnerved to see that he was wearing his fighting gloves. _He doesn't wear those during training..._

"Trunks. I will not allow you to leave this place." Vegeta's soft voice carried both a tone of command, and an infinite menace.

Trunks should have been surprised, but he'd anticipated something like this. "Care to tell me why?"

Vegeta favored him with a contemptuous look. "You know the answer to that. If you don't, then you really have no business going on this fool's errand."

Trunks smiled dangerously. "I was going to ask you to spar with me yesterday, but something came up. Care to prove me the weakling that you think I am?"

Vegeta looked a bit uncertain at his son's uncharacteristic bloodlust. "Fine. I'm still not letting you go."

Trunks waved a finger at him. "Where would be my incentive, then? If I beat you, then you have to let me go. If you beat me, I'll call this whole thing off. Deal?"

"Ha ha ha!" Vegeta laughed coldly. "You're going to defeat a Super Saiyan 4!"

"No, I'm going to force you to use that transformation." Trunks said, smiling thinly. "Since I can't do that, if you use that it'll be a foul, and you'll concede that I'm the better warrior."

Vegeta scowled at his son. "Your enemies won't hold back to your level."

"Maybe not, but I haven't seen anyone other than Super 17 or Li Shenron who was stronger than a Super Saiyan 3 without stealing the body of a Saiyan."

Vegeta stroked his chin. "You have a point. So be it. If you defeat me, I will not stand in your way."

"Good." Trunks sighed inwardly. _He took the bait. Now lets see if I can really win this._ "Shall we use the gravity platform?"

Vegeta smiled thinly. "That sounds interesting."

Bulma chose that moment to cut in. "What's with you two? You are NOT using my new gravity platform! And why wont you let Trunks go, Vegeta?"

Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "You didn't tell her, Trunks?"

Trunks sighed. "I didn't want to burst her bubble." _Well, I guess it would be better if she heard it from me…_ "Mom, the reason Marron is so frantic about this is that she thinks Babidi is going to arrive in that alternate world any time now. Buu may be hatched and on a rampage the moment I get there."

Bulma turned as white as a sheet. "You can't…you wouldn't…You're no match for Majin Buu!"

Trunks sighed again. "Neither of you think I have a chance. I can and I AM going. I can do this, and I'm going to prove it to both of you. Let's go, Dad."


	9. The challenge

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT

* * *

Chapter 9

* * *

Trunks walked around aimlessly on the fighting platform with his eyes closed, getting a feel for how the artificial gravity field worked. It was set to fifty times normal gravity, but Trunks barely noticed. The field was uneven, however, with some spots being stronger than others. _It's kinda like the currents in a swimming pool._ He consciously tried to map out the effects in his mind. He was sure his dad used his spar with Pan the previous day to do the same. 

Vegeta was waiting impatiently on the sidelines, muttering about how long Trunks was taking. Trunks opened one of his eyes. "Why don't you do something useful, like finding us a referee?" Trunks asked dryly.

The Saiyan Prince glared at him. "Like who?"

Trunks mock sighed. "I don't know, maybe 18 or Marron? Or possibly Goten? Or would you prefer Mr. Satan?" He asked sarcastically.

"Fine! I'll go find 18! You'd better be ready by time I get back." Vegeta stormed off after that.

Bulma chuckled when Vegeta was out of hearing range. "Why'd you bait him like that, Trunks?"

"Because I'm almost ready right now."

"And...?"

"And I don't want him to see this." Trunks powered up and flew through the twisting gravity field, trying to flow through the patterns he visualized earlier. He ran into a few pockets of dead air, and a few strains of hyper-gravity that he hadn't expected, but his approach was working _No wonder Dad was pacing Pan move for move yesterday. He was taking advantage of the uneven gravity._

"End gravity simulation" Trunks ordered the voice console. The gravity shut off.

"Wow, Trunks, that was amazing!"

"Thanks." Trunks tapped the platform thoughtfully with his toe. "How high did you test the gravity?" Trunks asked absently.

Bulma frowned. "I designed it to reach 5000x, but I think the highest it's been used so far was two-hundred and fifty."

_Hmm...I guess dad could have pushed it higher when she wasn't around, but he has the indoor one already._ Trunks had a good idea what it was going to take to beat his Dad, but there were no guarantees that it would work. _My dad probably has five times the experience I do...I'm sure I'm as good as he is mentally, but he's knows so much more and he trains regularly. The best I can hope for is eighty percent of his ability at a given power level._

That was a wide margin. Too wide when dealing with Vegeta.

_Either I can do this, or I can't. If I can't, then he and Bra were right. No shame in that. Even Goku had his bad days._

Vegeta returned with 18 in tow. The news must have spread that they were going to spar though, because Goten, Krillin, Marron and most of the people who stayed over after the party were making their way to the fighting platform.

Trunks was feeling whimsical, so he bowed formally to 18. "You honor us with your presence," He said with mock formality.

"Likewise, I'm sure." She said, frowning at Vegeta. "What are we doing?"

"I've challenged him to a fight," Trunks explained to 18, pointing to Vegeta. "We'd like you to play referee. I suggest that Super Saiyan 4 is off limits, deliberately targeting the gravity platform or the Earth itself is also a no-no and involving the crowd is of course not legal. What do you think, Father?"

Vegeta shrugged. "Are you sure you don't want to make any other rules?" He asked as he cracked his knuckles suggestively.

"Nope, that's all I can think of."

18 sized both of them up with her icy blue eyes. "What are you idiots doing?" She whispered.

Trunks leaned in confidentially. "Father and I have a difference of opinion on something important. Strangely enough, this is the most logical way to settle the argument."

18 eyed him suspiciously. "I'm not doing this if it's a simple matter of ego."

Trunks smiled innocently. "Would we need a referee, in that case?"

18's lips quirked in a smile. "I suppose not. What determines the winner?"

"Last one standing, surrender or foul."

Vegeta choked for a moment. "Are you serious!"

Trunks stared directly into his Father's dark eyes. "Weren't you, earlier?"

Vegeta's face hardened into a mask. "If this is what it takes to keep you from killing yourself, then so be it."

Trunks was rocked to his core. _He's doing this to protect me..._ Trunks was suddenly sick to his stomach. Two pressures collided in him. The first was the desire to help the people of the alternate dimension, and the second was the desperate wish not to hurt his dad. _It figures that he choose now to be a real father to me._

_"Don't mind Vegeta. This is the only way he can express himself anyway. Do your best!"_

Trunks kept his face smooth, but was startled by Goku's mental communication. _I guess he wouldn't want to miss a fight this big._ He had a mental image of the little Saiyan with a bucket of popcorn watching the upcoming fight with glee.

_"Yep. I'm watching! This is going to be a **real** fight!"_

Trunks sighed. "I'm sorry, Father. I know you think you're doing the right thing, but if it takes this to prove to you that I can take care of myself, then I have no choice."

18 nodded. "The terms are agreed upon. A foul, surrender by either of you, or incapacity will determine the winner. Take your places."

* * *

The small audience that had gathered wasn't quite sure what to expect, and the mood was eerie. Trunks heard Krillin say to Marron that he had "had a bad feeling about this." For his own part, Trunks' stomach was knotted in cold fear of what was coming. _If I stick to the plan, there's a good chance I'll win._ Trunks just hoped that his Dad would concede, and that he himself wouldn't be forced into a position of surrender.

Trunks and Vegeta hopped up onto the platform. "Warm-ups?" Trunks politely asked his Father.

"I'll pass." For the first time Trunks had ever witnessed, Vegeta looked decidedly unhappy to be fighting.

"Ok, no warm-ups. How much gravity?" The Saiyan prince glanced at him suspiciously. _It all hangs on this,_ Trunks thought to himself. _Will he figure me out, or will he walk into my trap?_

"I can take as much as you can!" Vegeta boosted.

_Got you!_ Trunks thought triumphantly. His victory was by no means assured, but he had a better chance by using the gravity platform to his advantage. "Then lets start at five hundred...and if either of us want to, we can order it higher. Ordering a shut-off would be the same as surrendering, agreed?"

Vegeta looked stymied for a moment. _I'm sure he knows I'm up to something, but hopefully he won't catch on until it's too late._ Trunks worked hard to looked nonchalant. After a tense moment, his Father gave in.

"Unusual, but I don't see why not. Are you ready to start, or not!"

"I think that about covers it. 18, are you ready?"

18 nodded sharply. She looked over at Bulma, who was obviously agitated by the situation. "Will you set it up the way they want it?"

Bulma flinched, seeming to come out of her thoughts with a jolt. "Yeah, I can do it." She said without enthusiasm. She sat down at the console, and started typing. After a moment she looked up. "It's set so that either of you can order the computer to set the gravity higher. It will start at five hundred when 18 calls the start. It will shut off if either of you are knocked down for more than five seconds." Her expression dared either of them to object.

Trunks smiled at his mom reassuringly, trying to convey that things would be all right. He wished he could believe that himself.

* * *

"Ready...BEGIN!" 

Trunks was waiting until the last second, but as he heard 18 begin to call the start, he quickly powered up to Super Saiyan 2. A golden aura flared around his body and his hair was suddenly sticking straight up with the excess energy his body was giving off. Vegeta looked surprised by his son's move, but quickly followed suit.

As both of them were powering up, the artificial gravity field come online, and Trunks felt his power greatly reduced by the awesome force pulling him down. _Alright. I'm about as strong as a normal Super Saiyan right now. If I can force the gravity higher, my Dad will be forced higher, and he'll tire out. I never got to test how draining Super Saiyan 3 is for me, but Goku could only hold it for about twenty minutes, and that was our limit, too, when Goten and I fused._

Trunks was sure that he could hold it with less effort than his dad. Everything about the transformations seemed to be harder for Vegeta than anyone else, and Trunks was going to have to take advantage of that if he wanted to win today.

Vegeta flew at him with amazing speed to start, but Trunks was waiting for it, and darted away up in the air. _Power for power, I'm no match for him. I've got to wear him down._ Trunks thought about the wild way that Goten used to fight, taking huge chances on unorthodox techniques. _That might work, to start with._

Vegeta was already in mid-turn, bracing to fire a ki blast at him, but Trunks flew straight at him, catching him completely off guard. There was a collective gasp from the crowd as Trunks attacked with both fists and Vegeta blocked with crossed arms, and a shockwave rippled out from the impact.

Trunks tapped the platform lightly as he danced away from Vegeta, but the Saiyan prince went on the offensive, gaining on him every step. _He's every bit as sharp as I thought. I won't get away with a straight offense again._ It still felt like they were warming up, though, so he decided to gamble. He stopped abruptly and began trading blows with his dad. As fast as he was currently, Vegeta blocked his blows easily, and Trunks knew that he was in big trouble. _Stick to the plan, stick to the plan..._

Vegeta jumped back and sneered. "I said no warm-ups!"

Trunks grinned. "Ok, lets up the odds a bit then. Seven-hundred and fifty!"

As the gravity adjusted, Vegeta and Trunks struggled against an enormous weight- their bodies. Both of them weighted approximately seventy tons within the Gravity field. Although Vegeta was shorter than Trunks, he was bulkier and more muscular. Trunks make a quick mental calculation, and realized that they were only at about eight times normal gravity for their normal forms. _It's not enough! Dad was born on a Planet with more gravity than this! How is mom's invention going to give enough to give me an advantage!_

Vegeta made a sound of displeasure. "If you're going to do something, do it right! Two-thousand!"

Trunks felt it a bit more this time, but surprisingly he was still able to handle it. He mentally calculated that they were only at twenty times normal gravity for their normal forms. Both of them had routinely trained to three hundred times normal without using their Super Saiyan powers when Trunks was younger. _I'll have to max it out, and use my Super Saiyan 3._

"Why don't we just take the gloves off?" Trunks asked slyly. "Five thousand!"

"NO!" Bulma screamed. "We've never gone that high with any of the gravity units!" Her husband and son ignored her outburst.

Goten and Bra shared a look. They both scrambled up as fast as they could. "Everyone, get back! You too, 18!" Goten shouted.

Vegeta looked his son over as the hyper-gravity bubble intensified. He smiled a deadly smile. "So, feeling it, yet?"

"Not really," Trunks said slowly, smirking at him. "Remember this, Father?" He asked as he jumped high into the air several times.

Vegeta frowned at the memory of his son becoming a Super Saiyan at age seven. "So, are you ready to stop playing around?" He snapped back irritably.

"So nice of you to ask," Trunks watched his Father closely, in case of a surprise attack, as he tapped deeper into his power. "Aaahhhh!" Trunks screamed as his body twisted and his hair lengthened. After a moment, the transformation was complete. Trunks paused to feel the drain caused by his higher level. _The stamina drain is minimal,_ He thought with relief. He began to feel a bit more optimistic about his chances of winning.

Vegeta laughed coldly. "Is that all you're capable of?" Vegeta also powered up, and the Earth started shaking, even though both of them were within the gravity field. Vegeta's hair also lengthened, and his muscles bulged absurdly.

Trunks absently noted that Goten and Bra had evacuated the area around the platform. _Good thinking._ He felt Vegeta's power soar above his own, but paradoxically, Trunks knew that his Father was digging his own grave. _This couldn't be more perfect. Dad's going to push himself to his limits, and if I can survive even five minutes, he'll be exhausted. Hopefully I can get him to surrender without hurting him too badly...but if not, I guess there's always Coran._

The strange cat Coran cultivated Senzu beans, miraculous items that healed even a mortally injured person within seconds. Coran was also a skilled fighter and had been Goku's mentor, once. The only thing Senzu beans couldn't heal was sickness.

Trunks shook off his musing as his father finished powering up. _I can do this!_ Trunks shouted mentally as he also raised his power to it's maximum. He fell just short of Vegeta's power. _This will have to do._ Vegeta smirked at him and invited him to attack first. _Well, here goes nothing!_

_

* * *

_

Two minutes into the battle, Trunks was losing badly.

The young Demi-Saiyan wasn't used to fighting at the kinds of speeds they were moving at, and his balance was off. Vegeta was taking full advantage, and had dealt several serious blows to Trunks as a result. On the other hand, Trunks had been prepared to take a lot of hits early on, and had moved with most of the attacks so that the force was greatly reduced. One of Vegeta's wicked punches had caught him squarely in the side, however, and the force had almost broken the ribs under his right arm.

Trunks had gotten a few good hits in during the exchanges, making sure to take advantage when his father committed himself to an attack. Unfortunately, he was only getting a clear hit about once every three attacks, and he knew he couldn't take much more. He noticed something odd, though. Vegeta seemed surprised that Trunks was connecting with his counter attacks. _It's almost like he thinks I shouldn't be fast enough..._

Trunks tried to center himself, but Vegeta seemed to be everywhere, and Trunks couldn't keep up with the other Saiyan's movements. _Tactics 101. Push your opponent off balance and don't let him recover._ Trunks thought he had an answer, however.

Trunks picked three random positions, and finally a random place on the gravity platform. He moved so fast through the first three points that he left an after-image there. _I hope he doesn't see right through this..._

When he reached the final spot, he looked up, trying to figure out what Vegeta was doing. Luck was with him as Vegeta reflexively threw a ki blast behind him. _Thank you, Goten._ Goten's unpredictable tactics from when they both were younger were fouling Vegeta's usually perfect strategies up.

The usual use of greater speed or the after-image technique was to sneak up behind someone, and Vegeta had reacted accordingly. The other usual place to go was up, because you never wanted to be lower than your opponent. Vegeta was busy searching the skies, while Trunks was taking a needed moment to get his mental balance.

Trunks knew that he had mere seconds before his Father would figure out where he was. _He's not as off as I am, but something is definitely wrong with him._ Trunks couldn't figure out why Vegeta was leaving himself open to all of the attacks he'd launched so far. _He only toys with his opponents when he's got at least a thirty percent power advantage. What's making him so sloppy?_ He dismissed out of hand that Vegeta was letting him do it._ Not only does that go entirely against what I know about him, he..._

Trunks suddenly knew what was going on, and he moved with that knowledge. The primal, savage part of himself that had awakened earlier during his first transformation pounced with lethal intent at the Saiyan Prince.

Trunks knew he made a mistake as soon as his fist flew through the ghost image._ Figures that he'd counter with the same technique. Ok, up, or down?_

**"Big Bang Attack!"**

A massive blue energy ball flew toward him from above. Trunks shuddered at the thought of how much extra force it was going to have with the gravity enhancing it. _Goku said once that a ki attack wasn't entirely about the force, that it had two components: the energy you're attacking with and the energy that gets it there._ Trunks drifted downward toward the platform, throwing a minor ki blast of his own. The blast slowed Vegeta's finishing move enough that he could put his hands up to catch it. _Goku showed me how to do this...let's hope it works._

Trunks used his ki to neutralize the ball. It started huge, but shrank and then disappeared just as his feet touched the platform. _Whew! He almost got me that time. Time to give him something to think about._ Trunks powered up and pointed two fingers at his astonished father.

"Triple shot!"

Three blasts were fired from Trunks' fingers. He moved to a new position in the air as his father nimbly dodged the three small but deadly balls.

Trunks watched his father carefully, trying to anticipate his dodge pattern. _Hmm...I think...THERE!_ He made a triangle with his hands, and powered up again.

**"Tri-beam…HA!"**

The triangular red blast was racing toward dead air until Vegeta stopped right in its' path. He reflexively glanced toward Trunks' declaration of attack. His eyes widened, and he automatically countered with a sustained blast from his right arm.

The resulting collision between the two energy attacks made a shocking detonation. Trunks debated for a split second whether to continue to press the attack or break it off. _He's stronger, but these big attacks of his must be tiring him out. I can keep this up all day, if I have to._ He decided not to back off, just as Vegeta was stabilizing his own attack and pushing harder.

"You can't win!" Vegeta shouted as he threw even more power behind the attack.

"NO! You can't hold me back anymore!" Trunks shouted back as he pushed back just as hard.

The two blasts moved back and forth in the air as the two combatants sought to overpower each other. Trunks carefully noted how close he was to his maximum. He planned to break off at ninety percent.

Vegeta seemed fathom Trunks' plan, and suddenly threw everything he had at his son.

**"FINAL FLASH!"**

The young Saiyan watched in dread as his blast was forced backward and then simply overwhelmed by the awesome attack. _Nowhere to go! No Time!_ Trunks wasted a moment frantically wracking his brain for an answer. _This won't kill me, but I WILL lose if that hits me!_

Just as the attack was about to explode in his face, the answer hit him, and he simply relaxed.

He fell like a lead weight.

The horrid attack flew past him, mere inches above his head, flying out of the gravity field and presumably into space, just as it had during the battle with Cell so many years ago. Trunks hit the platform so hard that the ground shook around it. Unbelievably, the surface held.

_Three minutes,_ Trunks thought despairingly. _Only three minutes, and he almost had me._ He dragged himself to his feet, fully expecting to lose at that moment.

* * *

A sound intruded on Trunks' awareness. 

He'd been aware of the constant buzz that the gravity platform emitted, but he started to hear exhausted breathing.

It was Vegeta.

_YES! He must be tapped out! _Trunks thought, elated. He still had a good amount of stamina. _This battle is MINE!_

"Hah hah hah..." Trunks shuddered in dread as Vegeta's familiar laughter echoed in the empty courtyard. "You're really something...a chip off the old block, so to speak." Vegeta took a deep breath. "But you didn't think that you'd get the best of me, did you?"

Trunks relaxed. _This is the final play. Either he's bluffing, or I'm in big trouble._ "Not this soon," he admitted.

Vegeta's eyes widened. "What do you mean, 'This soon?'" He demanded harshly.

Trunks started laughing. How he ever laughed that hard under so much gravity, he wasn't sure. He was sure of one thing, though.

This battle was his.

"Ten thousand times normal gravity!" Trunks shouted.

"NO!" Vegeta and Bulma screamed in unison.

* * *

The platform shuddered as the gravity field, already close to warping spacetime, doubled in intensity. 

Vegeta fell like a stone, and the platform shattered from the impact. Trunks figured that his dad weighted virtually one million tons in the hyper-gravity bubble. The field shattered as the coils within the platform were destroyed. _Not quite what I had in mind, but I'll take it._ Trunks thought wryly as he flew over to his dad. He was greatly relieved when Vegeta hauled himself out of the wreckage, looking mostly unhurt, but he was no longer a Super Saiyan 3.

"You little Bastard!" The Saiyan Prince roared at his son.

"What?" Trunks asked, wearing false innocence like a regal cape.

"VEGETA!" Bulma screamed in fear. She threw herself at her husband. "Don't EVER do that again!" She turned a lethal glare on her son. "What do you think you were doing!"

18 casually walked up behind her. "I agree. Care to explain before I disqualify you?"

Trunks smiled. "You mean the thing about destroying the platform?" 18 nodded and Bulma's glare darkened even more, if that was even possible. "Dad and I are even about that. He would have destroyed the platform if I hadn't overcome his Big Bang." He smiled smugly at his father. Now that his mom was here, he wasn't afraid of Vegeta taking a cheap shot at him. He let his Super Saiyan power fade.

18 looked at him as if he were insane. "You Saiyans are unbelievable." She shook her head. "From my perspective, it was a draw. Let's leave it at that."

"Thank you, 18." Trunks sighed in relief. _One battle down, and about a million to go._


	10. Inner demons

A/N: Surprise! Pan gets a few chapters of her own. I was fully intending to write this ENTIRE story only in Trunks POV, but I already screwed that up earlier, and my muse wouldn't talk to me until I did this.

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT

* * *

Chapter 10

* * *

Pan stared at her trigonometry book blankly, not really caring how the measurement of two sides and an angle could determine the complete dimensions of a triangle. She absently gnawed on a fingernail as she tried to focus on her homework, and not on the issue that was bothering her. 

It was ten o'clock on Monday morning, and while she should have been at school, Pan and her mom had quite an argument earlier that morning that left both of them shaking in anger. Her dad stepped in before the fight had become physical, and suggested that Pan take the day off. If anything, that made Videl more furious than before.

Pan needed the time, though. She'd spent all of the previous day at the Briefs', and Saturday had been devoted to chores. She hated school more than anything, but her parents were adamant that she at least finish high school and get a degree. The fiery-tempered teenager reluctantly agreed with them. She wasn't interested in being a professional fighter.

She stared out the window at the perfect conditions outside. A light breeze stirred the leaves of the tree that shaded her window. The sky was as blue as the southern ocean, and wispy clouds drifted lazily across the perfect dome. The bright sun was almost blinding, shattering into hundreds of rainbows as passed through her prismic glass ornaments.

She just couldn't concentrate. The situation with Trunks was like a demon in her mind. It wouldn't leave her alone, and the more she tried to ignore it, the more it bothered her.

"Damn you, Trunks!" She shouted as she picked up her textbook and threw it through the window above her desk. The glass shattered into long fragments, reluctantly giving way to the ridiculous amount of force Pan had invested into the thrown book.

"Wanna talk about it?"

Pan jumped at the sound of her father's voice. She had no idea how he'd entered without her noticing.

"I don't know, Dad." Pan said, her voice sounding empty in her own ears.

Gohan sat down in the newly vacant chair by her desk. He wasn't wearing his glasses, and there was an unusual seriousness in his demeanor. Pan was suddenly, forcefully, reminded that her dad was no pushover. He was a scholar, but he was also a fighter. It was Gohan the warrior that was speaking to her right now.

"This doesn't have anything to do with what your mom is worried about, does it?"

Pan felt a little better hearing that. _At least I won't have to plow over that old ground with him._ "You're right, it's not what she and I were arguing about."

Gohan stared at the now broken window. "I don't like seeing you this upset. Would it be easier for you to talk to someone else?"

Pan was amazed at his tact. It was like she was seeing a whole new side of her dad. _Confident, analytical, and smooth as polished glass...no wonder Vegeta hated him._

"No dad, it's not you. I don't...I'm not sure...urrg!"

Words failed Pan. Her emotional side seemed to know something her logical half didn't. When she was younger, her emotions usually got her into trouble, especially her temper. She did her best to contain her feelings as she got older, but during her recent training Vegeta surprisingly told her to let them all out, all the time. She was certain now that in his bizarre way the Saiyan Prince had reached a deeper well of wisdom this way himself, and that this was the first flash of such a thing in her.

She took a deep breath, and tried to put into words the emotional turmoil she was in. "I'm angry with Trunks."

The words seemed so trite and insufficient when they left her mouth, but Gohan merely nodded rather than inquire beyond her obvious statement. His attentiveness relaxed her. She'd been worried that he wanted to grill her about the situation, but the look in his eyes seemed to say _"Take your time, I'm right here."_

"I don't know why I'm so angry with him, but I am."

Again, Gohan nodded. "Is it about the trip?" He asked quietly.

"YES!" Pan shouted angrily. She tried to put the pieces together, but they refused to form a cohesive picture in her mind. "I...I...can't put it into words! I'm furious at him! He's a stuck-up, irrational lunatic!"

Gohan seemed unfazed by her tirade. "Is this about Marron?" He asked with deceptive casualness.

Pan's anger abruptly faded. "No, it's not." She said with surprise. "I wasn't even thinking about her..." Her temper rose again. "It's all him! That stupid, wrong-headed excuse for a Saiyan!"

"You've been hanging around Vegeta too much, I think." Gohan said, chuckling slightly. "Ok, Trunks is stupid, wrongheaded and a lunatic, according to you. Why?"

"He…He's going to get himself killed!" She said in a rush, and then immediately paled when the words registered.

Gohan's eyes were hard, serious. _Saiyan eyes,_ Her mother used to say. "You're sure?"

"NO I'M NOT!" She shouted at him. She worked hard to lower her voice. "That's the problem," she continued more quietly. "I can't be sure. But this plan of his...I get a bad feeling every time I think about it."

"What's really going on here?"

Pan covered her face with her hands. "Trunks thinks that Babidi and Majin Buu are going to be attacking Earth in the other dimension. I don't think he's ready to take Buu on alone!" To her surprise, she found herself shaking with the power of her emotions.

Gohan's eyes narrowed. "So that's why he pushed himself to the next level." He paused thoughtfully. "Trunks has the power he needs, and he's fought Buu before. Why don't you think he can win?"

"I don't KNOW!" She said in frustration. "But something's WRONG!"

"You want to go with him, don't you?"

Pan looked up at her father. "I do want to go, but I'll just get in the way...I'm not even a Super-Saiyan yet." The last words were a bitter admission for the young woman.

"It'll be hard," Gohan said in an offhand manner "but I'll show you how to do it, if you want."

Pan was stunned. "You're not going to stop me...?"

"Pan, you're old enough to make your own decisions." He suddenly smiled grimly. "Besides, it's not as if that stopped you before."

Pan colored at the mention of her unauthorized adventure with Goku and Trunks. "I don't know if I'm ready, but I want to try," Pan said with a hint of uncertainty.

"I know I wasn't ready when Cell showed up, but sometimes you have to step up and be what's needed." Gohan responded seriously. "Just keep in mind what you're fighting for, and the people you want to protect, and you'll do fine."

* * *

Gohan had changed into a fighting outfit that resembled the one Pan always saw Picollo wear, without the cape and the head adornment. Pan was wearing her red fighting Gi, and they'd both flown deep into the wilderness to train. _It's a shame that the training area in the lookout was destroyed._ She took a deep breath of the forest air, and decided that she preferred it out here anyway. 

Pan and Gohan had sparred three separate times during the last hour, and at the end of the third sparring session her dad announced that she should be strong enough to transform. Now came the hard part.

"Ahhhh!" Pan shouted as she tried to push her power level up higher. It was exhausting, both mentally and physically for her to push herself to her limits, but she kept thoughts of Trunks firmly in her mind and tried to push harder with her strengthened resolve. She could feel her power radiating outward in a circle from her, but it was still her normal power, not the higher level of a Super-Saiyan.

"You can't just power up, Pan. You have to **need** that power, not just want it. If given a choice, your body won't change. It has to be forced to do so."

She felt her hair rising, as if by static electricity, and her skin tingled. _I'm almost there! I can feel it!_

Just as she felt like something was happening, her power slipped away like wet sand through her fingers. _NO!_ She screamed mentally.

"Relax, Pan. You've reached your limit."

Pan sank to the ground in a shuddering heap. She was breathing rapidly, feeling as if she'd lifted a mountain. She saw that her dad was offering he water. She waved him away as she tried to calm her overstressed body down.

"In...in a minute, dad." She said, panting in exhaustion. She managed to roll onto her back. "That's...harder than it looks."

Gohan looked at her sympathetically. "I know, Pan. It wasn't any easier for me. Dad went easy on me, but he didn't really understand. He became a Super-Saiyan during a battle. It's harder to do deliberately."

Pan's felt the burn from her lungs fade, and her rapid breathing slowed. She still felt like someone had beaten her from head to toe, though. She held her hand out for the water bottle, and Gohan carefully handed it to her. She took small sips, and started feeling better imediately.

"You just rest for awhile. You shouldn't do that more than once per hour. You did well...I saw hints of the change." Gohan's words held a hint of false encouragement.

Pan was unexpectedly crushed by her dad's statement. _I'm nowhere near changing. I can't do this! What was I thinking?_ She tried to stifle it, but a sob escaped her. _I've never been able to keep up with them! It's not fair!_

Gohan heard her sob, and rushed to her side. "Shhh, it's ok, Pan." Pan tried to say something, but he interrupted her. "No, it really is." He had a faraway look in his eyes. "Becoming a Super-Saiyan isn't easy. You're going to see and feel things that you thought you had put behind you. It isn't really a process of toughening up your body, but more about understanding why you are who you are."

Pan looked at him in disbelief. "Vegeta and Grandpa don't know any of that! How did they do it?"

Gohan frowned at her. "You think they don't know themselves?"

"I know they aren't what they say they are."

"Rage in a calm mind. That's what Dad said triggered the transformation. You can't be calm if you aren't at peace with yourself. Vegeta and Dad may not be what everyone thinks they are, but they accept themselves and are at peace with their natures. That's a big step. It took Vegeta close to three years to get there."

"But what do I need to do?" Pan asked angrily. "I don't have three years to soul search!"

Gohan looked at her penetratingly. "Do you like being the weakest Saiyan?"

The question caught her off guard. "Of course I don't!" Pan shot back. "I work harder than Trunks or Goten, but they're stronger than me!"

A sly smile touched Gohan's lips. "Dad would have been happy with a power level of less than a thousand, if his brother Radditz hadn't come to Earth. You're probably two-thousand times stronger than he was at your age."

"It doesn't matter! It's not fair!"

"Would it surprise you to know that Vegeta said the same things?"

Pan flinched. While Vegeta was her teacher, he was hardly her role model. "What are you getting at?" She asked in cold anger.

"You're probably going to have the same problems as he did. I had a different set of problems. Dad had another. It's different for everyone, but you hate the position that you're in, as compared to what it 'should' be."

"And why shouldn't I have been a natural Super-Saiyan?" Pan spat at him. "Trunks and Goten are, and they're only second generation! I'm third! And on top of that, you were the strongest!"

Gohan frowned. "Who told you that?"

"What, that you were the strongest? Even Vegeta thinks you were. He thought you wasted perhaps the greatest potential strength he's ever seen. You were a subject of many of his rants, during our training."

"So he took you under his wing to make up for a lost link in the chain?"

Pan glared at him. "How should I know what 'The Prince of All Saiyans' is thinking? My guess is that he felt honor bound by Grandpa's last wish that he take care of us." Her eyes hadn't softened. "So why can't I do this?"

Gohan sat down beside her, ignoring her anger. "Pan, life isn't fair. Vegeta had the potential of a Super-Saiyan within him, but that never protected him against Frieza. My dad died fighting his brother. Trunks and Goten got eaten by Majin Buu. You just don't snap your fingers, and power appears. Trunks and Goten aren't as strong as Dad or Vegeta were because they didn't have a solid foundation for their power."

"It may be a blessing in disguise that you haven't been able to transform yet. You've mastered skills that you probably would have ignored if you had more power, and more importantly, you've had time to grow into your power, something I always hoped you'd have the luxury of doing."

"It's still not fair," Pan said more quietly than before.

"It is what it is." Gohan looked at her appraisingly. "You helped Dad beat one of the Shadow Dragons, right? Even without being a Super-Saiyan, you were able to do that."

"So I should give up?" Pan asked in a defeated voice.

Gohan sighed. "No. I'm sure you can do it, but it may take time."

"I don't have that."

Gohan got up and dusted himself off. "I'm heading back. You should stay here and meditate. The backpack has lunch and dinner in it. I'll tell your mom not to worry, and to lay off you about Trunks. Take all the time you need."

As Gohan started to fly off, Pan called to him. "Thank you, Daddy! I'm sorry that I'm being so much trouble!"

She saw Gohan shake his head. "You aren't being trouble. Do your best! That's all that anyone can ask of you!"


	11. Peace at last

My muse seems to be in a talkative mood again, so hopefully we'll see a few new chapters soon. I've bumped the rating up for swearing and possible sex scenes later. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT

* * *

Chapter 11

* * *

Shortly after her father left for home, Pan sat quietly in the wilderness, soaking up the sounds of the cool forest. _It's been so long since I've done this,_ she thought as she felt a deep peace envelop her. She'd often run off and hide in the woods when she was younger, a practice that frightened her parents until Goku trained her. After her parents were satisfied that she was in relatively little danger, she would frequently disappear from early morning until nightfall. The solitude spoke to a deep part of the young girl's soul. 

It hadn't been possible for her to do this after the carnage of Li Shenron. Many of the animals were sick or underfed, and the natural world was no better off as disasters fed off each other in an endless cycle of destruction. Now that most of the people had moved back to the cities, the natural balance was returning. Pan had wept in horror as millions had died from the seemingly unstoppable plagues that had come after the defeat of the Shadow Dragons, but it was hard for her to hold on to that feeling as she felt the natural world around her growing back more magnificently than before. _There were too many people before…_

Pan didn't want to think about all of what she and the others had endured. Not only had they lost Goku to Li Shenron, but the wish they'd been hoping to make was never granted. Goku had asked for all the people killed to be returned…but what else could he do? Less than ten percent of the world's population was still alive. However, the wish was supposed to have been to restore the Earth's natural balance. _Looks like the Earth did it herself, in her usual direct way. And to think Trunks was arrogant enough to believe that we could do it ourselves._

That was the core of the problem, in Pan's mind. _Trunks is too optimistic. He thinks anything's possible._ Pan knew the truth, now. Possible, yes. Doable, not always. _Still, he managed to mitigate the damage this time._ Two years was not two centuries. Trunks had almost single-handedly averted another dark age by risking everything Dr. Briefs had worked his entire life for. _Without his willingness to put everything on the line at every turn, We'd probably be dead right now._

_But he's risking it all again!_ Pan knew that luck only took you so far. _If he goes by himself, it's only a matter of time before the Grim Reaper stops putting up with him being 'The one that got away.'_ The other Trunks had died in her dimension when Cell shot a blast clear through his chest. Goku died that day, too. Vegeta would have died if not for her dad. _What a bad day in history,_ Pan thought musingly. _Kinda on par with Vegeta and Nappa's first visit to Earth._

_

* * *

_

Pan's musing was interrupted by the shrieking of birds in the trees around her. _What's got them so upset?_ Pan thought irritably as she shaded her eyes from the bright sunlight leaking though the forest canopy. _It's not like they have anything to complain about…_

Pan's eyes widened as she felt two massive powers in West City, both of which were familiar to her. She shuddered in awe at the combined power they were giving off. The ground beneath her rumbled as the power exceeded Super-Saiyan level three. _What the hell are they doing!_

Pan sat still, trying to feel the battle from where she was. Once, this had been difficult for her, but after more than a year of training with Vegeta she'd become more accustomed to feeling her opponent's movements than seeing them.

It was hard for her to sense what was going on in any great detail. _They must be fighting in artificial gravity._ _Just as well,_ Pan thought wryly. _Those idiots would probably shake the planet apart if they weren't._

_

* * *

_

Pan's fists were clenched in white-knuckled fear after she felt the battle end. It was clear that both of them were holding back, but even so their power was so far above hers that she wanted to alternately scream in frustration and cry in loss.

_How will I EVER compete with them?_ Pan thought to herself, inwardly crying. _I try so hard! I do everything they tell me! I have the will! Why won't the power come?_

Pan was in an inner sea of loss. She'd never known such a deep well of depression existed. It seemed like all of her dreams of being a hero and being someone important were crumbling and washing away…like the sand castles she used to build during trips to the beach.

_The tide would come in, and wash away all of my work…all of my dreams, all of my hopes...washed away. Mom would say that it meant that I could start fresh next time, and build something even better. _

It's not that easy, mom.

* * *

Pan stared listlessly at the sky for over an hour, wondering how she ended up at this point in her life with nothing to look forward to and no major accomplishments ahead of her.

_I've heard that seeing into the future is a curse…I think I see why now._

She absently reached into the backpack her dad left with her and took out a rice cake. She ate it without tasting it. After two bites she threw it at a tree as hard as she could. _This is SO POINTLESS!_ She thought in impotent fury. _I should have taken the hint during the hunt for the Black Star Dragonballs. I was useless then and I'm useless now!_ Tears of helpless rage leaked from her eyes.

"Are you going to sit there crying all day?" A harsh voice scolded her.

"Fuck off, Vegeta." Pan said without opening her eyes, her sharp words contrasting with her uncaring tone of voice.

"So, you have that much spirit left in you, at least." He spat off to the side. "Gohan told me you were a wreck, but I didn't believe him."

Pan was ill prepared to confront him. Vegeta always dug at her weak spots, both physically and emotionally, and she usually wore her brat persona as a counter to his constant badgering. Today she didn't care.

"So, did you have fun beating up Trunks?" Pan asked caustically.

She could almost feel Vegeta's wrath. After a pause in which she was sure he was going to hit her, he let out an angry breath. She cracked an eyelid to see the Saiyan Prince unusually upset. It was odd seeing him without his usual icy calm mask.

"He won the duel."

Pan's face screwed up in disbelief. "You let him win?"

He glared at her. "No, I didn't."

"Then why were you both holding back?"

Vegeta snorted. "We weren't. Where did you get that idea?"

"Well, for one thing, you're both still alive."

"That's no recommendation. 18 broke my arm, once." Vegeta's eyes held a distant rage. "I would much rather that she had killed me that day. I disgraced myself and our entire race by losing that battle."

"Why is everything I hear lately about you guys is that you failed at one thing or another? What about all the great victories you had? Your triumphs?"

Vegeta suddenly looked unnaturally calm. "What does your mother have to say about the past?"

Pan scrunched her eyes closed as she recalled the things her mother had said to her about her father and the others. She draw a fairly large blank. _Mom never had much to say when Grandpa was telling stories. She was always so quiet…_

"There weren't many victories, were there?" Pan replied softly.

Vegeta stared at the ground. "No, there weren't. Most of our victories were meaningless." When he looked at her, the glittering intensity of his dark eyes was almost frightening. "Do you know that when I went to Namek to stop Frieza from wishing himself immortal, I killed most of his soldiers? Not Kakarrot. Me."

"I killed Dodoria and Zarbon, Jeice and Ginyu. Each one I killed fueled my belief that I could overcome Frieza." Vegeta was shaking in fury. "Little did I know that I was wasting my time. Frieza was showing less than one percent of his power, and he was still stronger than all of his bodyguards in that state."

"Piccolo and I killed the two androids that showed up on the day Trunks warned us of. Four more showed up the same day. Cell and Buu were both mere steps away from destroying the entire universe. Bebi came this" He showed her a finger and a thumb almost touching "close to killing Kakarrot with my body. You know what happened with 17 and Li Shenron."

"You speak of great victories. More often than not, luck was simply on our side, for the moment, or great sacrifice was required. I see no great victories, only our continued survival, at great cost."

* * *

They were both quiet for a time. A light breeze occasionally ruffled the leaves of the tree Pan was laying down under. 

"How did you go on, Vegeta?" Pan finally asked softly.

Vegeta looked up from the ground, and stared into the sky. "I was angry."

Pan glanced at him. "Anger led you to become a Super-Saiyan?"

Vegeta sat down and leaned against a tree across from her. His eyes were unfocused, seeing a past far out of reach to Pan. "When Kakarrot had apparently killed Frieza, He stole something that was very sacred to me." The Saiyan Prince's voice was soft, and lacked the cutting edge that seemed in some ways to define him. "All my life up until that point had been devoted to the goal of defeating Frieza. Everything I did that didn't help me toward my goal was wasted action."

"Worse, he had become a Super-Saiyan. I was raised to believe that potential was supposed to be strongest in those of royal blood. Kakarrot had surpassed me seemingly without effort, becoming the legend I was supposed to be. From then on I hated Kakarrot and Future Trunks for reaching a goal that I could not, but I was lying to myself and everyone else. The one I hated was me."

"The fury I felt toward myself and my weakness kept me alive and pursuing the goal, even when it seemed impossible. According to the legend, there could only be one Super-Saiyan. My temper and my pride wouldn't let me stop, even though it seemed impossible to surpass Kakarrot. In the end, it was not in vain. I did surpass him, if only briefly."

Pan let the words sink in, and turned them around in her mind idly. "So you're saying that it's never hopeless as long as you never give up? That's something I'd expect from Grandpa Goku."

Vegeta gave her an offhand glare. "Kakarrot wasn't a complete fool, but he was close, and that's not what I said. That time, it was possible. You should never give up on something you think is important, but never assume that you can do it."

Pan had a sly thought. "What about this time?" She threw out, trying to startle an answer out of him.

Vegeta smirked at her. "You really don't know, do you?" He asked, suddenly laughing in true amusement.

Pan frowned at him. "This isn't funny, Vegeta!"

"Oh, but it is," Vegeta said, looking pleased to have the upper hand with her. "You've been able to transform for years."

Pan just stared at him, open-mouthed. "What are you talking about?" She managed to say in a squeaky voice.

Vegeta somehow managed to look more pleased with himself. "You always wondered why you weren't a natural. Well, why aren't you?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Pan screamed at him in pure fury.

Vegeta chuckled. "That's why."

Pan forced herself to calm down, but she still didn't get it. "Why what?" She asked curiously.

"Why are you always so angry?" Vegeta asked. "When you were younger, you once fell asleep when I was holding you. What happened between then and now?"

Pan thought about it. "Trunks," She replied immediately.

"Please," Vegeta scoffed at her "If my son could do that to you, I would be far more afraid of him."

Pan frowned. "I started getting mad a lot when I started to go to school…"

"And…?"

"The kids and parents were afraid of me. When the bigger kids would bully the smaller ones, I'd beat them up. Mom and Dad got angry at me and told me not to hurt the other kids."

"How long did that go on?"

"It never stopped, but I was careful not to hurt my classmates too badly."

Vegeta smiled in triumph. "Now do you see?"

"No."

Vegeta started muttering to himself. Pan caught the words "Kakarrot" and "blockhead." She was pretty sure none of it was complimentary to her. Finally, he seemed to run out of swear words.

"Fine, I'll put it as plainly as I can. You were afraid of hurting someone, or you would have transformed around age six or seven. You've blocked yourself."

* * *

Pan spent an entire five minutes in denial. 

_He can't be right…I never wanted anything more than this! _

_Liar,_ Another voice in her head whispered._ You wanted to be popular and accepted. You wanted people to like you. You didn't want them to think you were a freak. _

_A freak…_

_Is that what I think of Trunks and the others as? Freaks?_

Pan found that thought unsettling. _Have I really thought of Grandpa and the others as being…not human…because of their transformations?_

She knew that logically, they weren't human, but she was beginning to realize that she didn't think of Super-Saiyans as people. They were…something else. Something that she didn't understand or want to have anything to do with. _Vegeta's right,_ She thought numbly. She never knew such a dark place in her heart existed. _I've been holding myself back because I don't want to transform. I don't want to be a monster like them!_

She knew that what she was feeling wasn't fair though. The real monsters were the people that wanted to kill them, not her friends and family. _Goku, Trunks and Vegeta aren't monsters. If I transform, I won't be one either. I'll be myself, just…more._

She had let other people's perceptions rule her. Vegeta had warned her about the power that the thoughts and words of others had, but she never really saw how it had impacted her. She had hardened her heart against her loved ones rather than trying to understand what it meant to be to be a Saiyan. She had transferred all the negative feeling to others and blamed them for the problems she was having fitting in with normal humans. Worst of all, she'd hated Trunks and Goten for having the power she refused to use.

"How did I ever end up here…?" Pan asked in a broken voice.

Vegeta stared at her with his piercing black eyes. "Now you know." He blew a long sigh. "I asked myself the same question on the day Gohan surpassed us all and destroyed Cell."

Pan began to weep, but stopped herself and wiped the tears from her eyes. "How do I do it?" She asked abruptly.

Vegeta's eyes shown with approval. "Just let it go. All of it."

Pan stared at him incredulously. "That's it?"

"That's all. Don't fight for a result, just let it happen."

* * *

Pan and Vegeta had flown to a clearing, and Pan stood in the center trying to find the calm within her she had given away so long ago. As she stretched her arms out, she tried to let go of all of the frustration and anger that had consumed her since she was five. 

She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, swaying gently to music only she could hear. _Waves…I can hear waves. And seagulls. I smell salt and sand…_

She remembered when she was young and they all went to the beach. She remembered how peaceful everything was, how right the world felt. _I had everything I needed. My mom, My dad, My grandpa…_

As she opened her eyes, she knew something had changed. The world was a different place. Not a fearful place, but a place where anything was possible and adventures were just waiting for her. She felt herself floating off the ground, and twirling slowly in the air. _I don't have to live in fear!_

The transformation wasn't painful, or exhilarating, or even strange. Pan simply felt her skin tingle and her power rise, and as she looked at her right arm absently, she noticed that it was surrounded by a golden aura. She felt unnaturally calm but it was a familiar sensation, like coming home after a long time away.

Even lost in her sensations, Pan noticed Vegeta's look of quiet pride before he rose to leave. _He pretends to be so mean, but he's helped me in a way even my dad or grandpa weren't able to._ She let her power fade. "Vegeta!" She called after him. He turned to look at her. "I don't know how to thank you!"

Vegeta frowned at her. "Go with Trunks, and help him in any way that you can." He showed a rare moment of vulnerability in his eyes. "I won't demand this of you, but if you wish to thank me, do it in that way. Nothing means more to me than him."


	12. Wishes

A/N: For all of you who are still reading, CHEERS! I rewrote chapters 1 and 2 to get rid of the inconsistencies and repeated usage of the same adjectives(Thanks for pointing that out, Laura).

If anyone sees anything that doesn't fit, please tell me, as quick-edit gave me enough problems that I don't want to surf through the other 9 chapters checking.

On with the show!

Disclaimer: I do not own DBZ/GT and this is not for profit.

Chapter 12

* * *

"Gohan, I don't like this," Videl said calmly, stirring honey into her tea. "Pan was almost killed during her last adventures. Even Goku admitted as much to us." 

Gohan blew a sigh as he settled into his chair at the kitchen table. "I know, dear. I'm not too sanguine about the idea myself, but she'll just run off with Trunks again, no matter what we do." He closed his eyes in gesture of defeat. "At least she's a decent fighter now. Too bad dad isn't around to keep her out of trouble."

Videl tsk'ed. "Goku wasn't able to keep an eye on her, from what I understand, so I doubt it would have done any good." She took a sip of her tea, leaning against the kitchen counter. "I'm doubly worried about her going with Trunks this time."

Gohan smirked at her. "What's wrong with Trunks? I'm sure he'll make an suitable son-in-law."

Videl glared at her husband. "I don't trust him. Who's to say that he won't get bored and move on to some other girl? He can have his pick, you know. Pan's first serious relationship shouldn't be with him."

Gohan chuckled. "That's why you were harassing Trunks yesterday, wasn't it?" His expression sobered. "You don't trust Pan's judgment, do you?"

Videl shook her head. "No, I don't. I can trust her to do the right thing, but I can't trust her to think her way through all the details." She unexpectedly smiled brightly. "Considering what her grandparents are like, I guess I couldn't expect otherwise."

Gohan winced at the reminder of Goku, Chi-Chi and Hurcule. _Those three were legendary for acting first and thinking later. Good thing Pan at least _considers_ thinking first...even if she doesn't always do it._ "I guess we're lucky not to have another Goku or Hurcule on our hands, but I see your point."

"But you don't agree." She said flatly

"No, I don't," Gohan answered. "I can't explain it, exactly, but remember how Pan was gone when Bebi came to Earth?"

Videl shuddered. "I'm a little hazy about what happened at the time, but I don't believe she was here."

"Think about what that means. She was one of the few people not infected by Bebi. One of only three, if I'm not mistaken."

Videl walk to the table and sat down. "I don't follow you. It's certainly long odds, but the result is nothing to complain about."

Gohan leaned forward intently. "Pan would have been infected if she hadn't run off with Trunks and my dad. I think that she was _supposed_ to be with them."

Videl blinked. "Fate?" She asked disbelievingly.

Gohan smiled at her expression. "Why not? You didn't think I beat Cell by myself, did you?"

Videl blushed. "Well, actually, I did."

Gohan laughed. "I had all sorts of dreams and premonitions before the Cell Games...dad couldn't believe how hard I was pushing myself." His expression turned grim. "It took all that everyone had to beat Cell. Nevertheless, I think that it was fate that we won. If we'd lost, Cell would have destroyed the entire universe."

"So you think she should go?"

Gohan looked out the window thoughtfully. "I think it would be a mistake to stop her. I'm not saying we should push her to go, but we should support her if she wants to."

Videl slumped in her chair. "Gohan, I don't like having to worry about her! She's not even eighteen years old yet, and twice already she's gone off to fight in deadly battles for months at a time!" She paused, choking on unshed tears. "I'm afraid that she's going to die before she's even twenty! It's not right!"

Gohan rose from his chair and embraced his wife. "I'm sorry, dear. I wish we could have had a normal life, and that Pan could have had an ordinary childhood."

Videl smiled through her tears. "I wouldn't have married you if you were ordinary." She wiped her face with her sleeve and sighed. "I just wish these world-threatening disasters would stop. It's frightening to consider death without the dragonballs, especially when it's Pan."

Gohan assessed her mood carefully. "Trunks is much stronger now...close to how strong my dad was when they went after the black star dragonballs. I'm sure he'll do his best to keep her safe."

Videl's mood shifted again, her momentary acceptance turned to tension. "Yeah, and I'm sure he'll take great pains to protect her virgin status," she said scathingly.

Gohan almost laughed, but he managed to stifle it. He couldn't suppress a broad grin, though. "I seem to remember a rather pretty dark-haired girl saying something along the lines of 'We don't need to wait for the wedding...' to me a few years ago. She was _very_ persuasive, as I recall."

Videl blushed to the roots of her hair. "Oh...you!" She stammered. "I can't believe you'd bring that up!"

Gohan smiled and bent down to kiss her softly. "The point is, you were the one who made the decision. Trunks won't push her, and she won't do anything unless she's sure. On that point, I think we can trust her discernment."

Videl sighed in pleasure as Gohan stroked her cheek. "You make a good case. I just hope your faith in Pan is justified." She frowned slightly. "I was running around with your mom and the others gathering the dragonballs when Buu was running loose. I was no more safe then than Pan has been lately, but now all I do is worry about what could happen to her. I must be getting old."

Gohan chuckled softly, and made sure she noticed him looking her over appreciatively. "I doubt it...you're just as beautiful as the first time I saw you."

"And you damn Saiyans never seem to age." She said it in a tone of frustration, but her eyes were burning with a smoldering passion that Gohan recognized. His own passion ignited in response. "You may have won the argument, but you owe me for it, Son Gohan." She said teasingly.

"I'll have to see what I can do about that, then," he said softly. "Shall we talk about that upstairs?"

"Ah...what a good idea. I hope you're planning on something...hands-on."

* * *

Pan was bummed.

She'd flown back to the Briefs' family compound with Vegeta, but Trunks wasn't there. Vegeta was no less annoyed to find him gone, but that was nothing compared to Bulma's wrath. Pan winced as Trunks' mother verbally castigated the older Saiyan at the top of her lungs for destroying the gravity platform.

"I can't believe you and Trunks did this! This was brand new! It took me weeks to build this, and now..." Bulma continued, but Pan tuned it out, as she wasn't the object of the petite lavendar-haired woman's ire. She noted that Vegeta had tuned it out, too. _Oh, boy. I don't think I want to be around when she notices that..._

As Pan snuck away, Vegeta gave her a dirty look. She glared at him. _It's not my fault you idiots did that! You deal with the angry woman!_ Bulma had been working on the damaged section from a side access panel, so the only escape route was over the platform since they landed on the side of the property that was away from the buildings.

As Pan flew over the platform, she idly looked over the damage caused by the duel. As she assessed the damage, she started to notice that the pattern was all wrong. _This wasn't an all out fight..._ she thought to herself. _The damage is too limited._ She looked out beyond the bounds of the ring. _Not much damage there, either..._

Pan flew down, and before she thought better of it, she hit the ring with the flat of her palm solidly. It bounced slightly, absorbing the shock.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Bulma screamed at her. "As if Vegeta and Trunks didn't do enough damage to the platform, you're trying to wreck it, too!"

Pan flinched at the unexpected reprimand. "I'm sorry, Ms. Bulma, but I couldn't believe that the damage was so limited. I had to check."

"Limited...LIMITED!" Bulma shrieked. "Those two TOTALED it!"

Pan's eyes glittered, and she glared at Vegeta as the pieces began to fall into place in her mind. "I don't think that's the case, Ma'am. This section is perfectly intact. I'd be willing to bet that the area with the hole in it is the only one damaged."

Bulma looked at her in disbelief. "No way! Trunks set the machine too high! It should have burned out all of the coils!"

Pan crossed her arms, shaking in anger. "What happened?"

Vegeta glared back at Pan, but Bulma was too far gone in her own anger to notice the looks the two Saiyans were exchanging. "Trunks set the gravity to ten-thousand, and Vegeta crashed through the platform. It's going to take me days to fix this!" She grumbled to herself.

Pan was seeing red. _He LIED to me! HE LIED TO ME!_ She thought furiously. _I can't believe him! HE POINT BLANK LIED TO ME!_ Somehow, Pan managed to keep the anger out of her voice. "Vegeta, I need to talk to you. Alone."

"Alright," He said in blatant disregard of her rage. "Lead the way."

Pan stormed into one of the buildings, leaving Bulma to grumble over her broken masterpiece. Vegeta followed her unhurriedly, as if he were out on a stroll. Pan picked one of the rooms at random and almost wrenched the door off as she opened it. Vegeta calmly closed the door, and leaned against the wall at the entryway. "Well?" He asked.

"YOU...YOU!" She screamed, trying to keep her temper somehow. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" Her breaths were coming out in shallow pants. "You said you weren't holding back with Trunks...but you THREW THE MATCH!"

Vegeta looked a bit disturbed. "I didn't. We both fought at full power. Neither was holding back."

"LIAR!" She screamed at him. "Neither of you were giving it your all, let alone fighting at full power! WHY DID YOU LET HIM WIN?"

Vegeta's face turned mask-like. "I did not let him win, and we were most assuredly fighting at our full power."

Pan forced herself to calm down. She took a very deep breath. "You're still lying to me," She stated bluntly. "Tell me how the gravity platform survived unscathed until you blew a hole in it, and how an audience managed not to get blown to bits if you were both fighting at your best."

Vegeta frowned at her. "Alright, so we were both holding back. Trunks and I are the only ones that needed to know that."

Pan ground her teeth in pure fury. "WHY DID YOU LET HIM WIN?"

Vegeta tilted his head slightly, as if considering what kind of an answer to give her. "You heard the story- he caught me off guard. I didn't 'throw the match,' as you put it."

_He's baiting me...trying to get me to lose it. I'll never get the truth out of him by demanding it._ Pan made a conscious attempt to abandon her anger in favor of logic. "You blew that hole through the gravity platform with a ki blast. It would have held if you had simply fallen. You threw the match...why?"

Vegeta expression was an odd mixture of irritation and approval. "Because further fighting would have been pointless. My son came up with a good strategy, and he applied it well. Not well enough to beat me, but he shows enough potential that I let him have the win."

Pan was appalled. "You know that won't be good enough. This is Buu and Bebi we're talking about."

Vegeta looked annoyed by her assertion. "Trunks and Goten almost beat Majin Buu by themselves. Had they been properly appraised of the monster's regenerative ability, my son might have figured out a countermeasure. As much as I despised him for being a reminder of my weakness, he did remarkably well given his age and inexperience."

Pan shook her head in disbelief. "And you think..."

"I don't think, I KNOW he can do it," Vegeta firmly interrupted. "Kakkarot told me that my son figured out the secret of planet M2 without either of you knowing. This is not blind chance. I would not let my son out of my sight if I was not absolutely certain."

Pan frowned at him. "Then why do you want me to go?"

Vegeta frowned. "Battles are uncertain. Kakkarot would have failed had I not shown up when I did with the plan to use fusion against Li Shenron. As able as my son is, there may come a time when he can't do it alone. You have a deep hidden power, much like your father, and you may have to be there to help my son to victory."

"So I'm insurance?" Pan asked resentfully.

Vegeta glared at her coldly. "This is not a game, child. If my son dies, you'd better not come back in any better condition."

Pan shivered. _He means it..._ "I don't know if I'm up to this," She admitted quietly

Vegeta's continence softened, slightly. "No one else can do this. You've risked your life time and time again for Kakkarot and my son. You're no stranger to this, and I've taught you as well as I could given the time we had. It will have to be enough."

He made a gesture toward the courtyard that Bulma was working in. "Trunks could be literally anywhere right now, so I don't recommend waiting for him. He said he wanted to leave in three days. Don't be late."

* * *

When Vegeta said "literally anywhere," it was unlikely that he knew how accurate his comment was. Trunks was on Namek, and might have felt Pan's transformation had he not been gathering the dragonballs there to summon the true eternal dragon. 

"I don't know about this, Trunks…" Dende whispered. The seven dragon balls of Namek were arrayed before them, a different number of orange stars denoting each ball's number. They were much larger than the normal dragon balls of Earth or even the wickedly powerful black star dragonballs.

Trunks sighed at Dende's trepidation. "I told you, this will all work out fine." Even the Namekian Elder had granted his blessing when Trunks had explained that they needed the balls to correct an imbalance of universal scale. "Please call Porunga."

Dende seemed to steel himself, and spoke the summoning phrase in Namekian. That had always been the most effective defense against the misuse of the balls- Porunga would not grant a wish that was not spoken in the native tongue of its master.

"Porunga!" Dende finally shouted at the end of the summoning.

The balls glowed with an inner light, and the sky darkened. Lightning flashed, and the wind shrieked. A storm quickly gathered and coalesced into the form of a massive dragon, easily three hundred feet tall. It was covered in green scales, with long humanoid arms that ended in ebony claws and five straight horns that protruded from it's head. It reminded Trunks of a crown. Most arresting were it's eyes…a baleful ruby color that glowed from within.

WHO HAS AWAKENED ME FROM MY SLUMBER?

Trunks was sure that Porunga was speaking, but he realized that the dragon wouldn't be speaking in an Earth language. Porunga's massive voice was in his mind.

Dende wasn't as flustered as Trunks. He'd summoned Porunga twice before. "Trunks, speak your wish, and I'll translate." He sounded only a little hesitant.

Trunks took a deep breath. "Porunga! The dragonballs of Earth were flawed in their original construction. Can you fix them?"

Dende took a moment to translate, and it seemed Porunga was deep in thought.

THE DRAGONBALLS OF EARTH ARE NO LONGER PART OF THIS DIMENSION

Trunks felt his heart sink. _I should have known…when Goku beat Li Shenron, he banished the dragonballs. No wonder Shenron required his freedom as payment._ He shook his despair off like a dog shaking asheet of water from his coat. _I promised Goku that I'd get him back. I'll just have to try another approach._

Trunks looked back up at the massive apparition. "Porunga, could you fix the flaw in the dragonballs if they were in this dimension?"

THAT IS WITHIN MY POWER

Trunks let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Can you bring the dragonballs back to this dimension?"

Porunga seemed to consider again.

I CAN RETURN SHENRON TO THIS DIMENSION

Dende grabbed his sleeve before Trunks could speak again. "Trunks, what are you doing? The dragonballs are gone for a reason!"

Trunks looked at him in sympathy. "I know Dende, but it was the wrong reason."

Dende looked angry. "How do you know? My job is to keep the Earth balanced!"

Trunks understood his anger. "We inherited a monster from Kami, even as he rushed off to save us from another one. Goku was the ultimate victim here. This is about getting him back, and taking our world back, Dende."

Dende's anger seemed to drain out of him. "It would be great if we could do that…how are you planning on getting Goku back?"

Trunks smirked. "Just trust me with this."

Dende looked resolute. "Ok, I'll translate."

Trunks turned back to Porunga. "Wish the dragonballs back to this dimension, Dende," he said quietly.

Porunga's eyes glowed fiercely when Dende finished translating. After a moment, they faded back to normal.

YOUR FIRST WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED. I MUST HAVE YOUR SECOND WISH

_One down, two to go,_ Trunks thought. "Ask Porunga to fix the flaw in the dragonballs." Trunks said softly to Dende.

Dende spoke in Namekian once again. Porunga seemed to struggle after Dende finished translating the wish. Finally, he seemed to relax.

YOUR SECOND WISH IS GRANTED. SPEAK YOUR FINAL WISH!

Dende looked to Trunks. "Do we wish for Goku?"

Trunks answered absently as he formulated the last wish. "No. Goku should be alive and well on Earth right now. Ask Porunga."

Dende spoke some words in Namekian to Porunga.

THE SAIYAN NAMED GOKU IS ALREADY IN THIS DIMENSION

Trunks sighed inwardly in relief that his theory had been correct. He wanted to use the last wish to correct a botched wish from long ago to pay the Nameks back for using their dragonballs. Surprisingly, Yamcha had been the one to figure out the correct wording for such a wish: name a time, and name a condition if required. "Dende, ask Porunga to bring back all of the Nameks that were killed since Frieza arrived."

Dende's eyes widened. "You want to revive all the Nameks that Vegeta killed?"

"I do. The original wish was badly worded. Frieza might have won on Namek if my father hadn't slowed him down and wrecked the little monster's plans at every turn, but what he did to those Nameks was horrible. Call it a kind of atonement."

Dende nodded. He translated the third wish.

Porunga shuddered after his eyes glowed again.

YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED. I TAKE MY LEAVE.


	13. An old friend returns

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/DBZ/GT

* * *

Chapter 13

* * *

The skies over Namek were clear after the dragonballs scattered. The azure dome was covered by sparse clouds, and a slight breeze bent the blades of grass. Trunks and Dende were relaxing before returning to Earth. Trunks was exhausted from his battle with Vegeta and from instant transmitting them halfway across the galaxy, but he felt hopeful about the wishes he'd made to Porunga. Dende was in no hurry to return, as he had been away from his home for more than thirty years. 

_The view is almost bewitching..._ Trunks thought to himself as he shaded his eyes from the planet's brilliant double suns. He absently shifted position and winced at sharp pain in his wounded side. _He didn't have to hit me THAT hard,_ Trunks thought irritably. He let the irritation slide over him, though. He didn't want anything to spoil the moment.

He heard Dende sigh. "I should really be getting back," the young Namek said regretfully.

Trunks snorted in amusement. He refrained from saying anything insulting about Dende's responsibilities, however. "Relax, Dende. We're waiting for someone."

Dende looked over at him in disbelief. "Who knows we're here?"

"Well, I do for one!" Came an unexpected voice.

Trunks didn't bother to rise, but he did smirk. "Hey Goku, I didn't hear you come in."

"Spoilsport!" Goku exclaimed.

Trunks cracked an eye open. The legendary Saiyan was back to his normal size, he noted. "So, you're not a kid anymore. What kept you?"

Goku made a hurt face. "You're mean, Trunks!" He chuckled. "I had to go get some clothes before I came. "

Trunks felt like laughing. "What, Shenron wouldn't give you a replacement set?"

Goku plucked at his orange and blue outfit. "These were luckily still in the drawers at my house. They're a little musty, though." His visage abruptly turned serious. "Shenron won't be able to grant any wishes for five years."

Trunks was up on his feet in shock before he could even register the action. "WHAT?"

Goku sat down crosslegged. "Shenron's power was drained when the shadow dragons came out. It was further drained by the last wish he granted to me as a favor. Shenron wasn't planning coming back for a long time...so I guess we'll just have to deal with this."

Trunks was fuming though. "Goku, you know we needed that wish! A lot of people died last year! The others may have been out of our reach, but those we have to save!"

Goku looked deadly serious for the one of few times Trunks could remember. "Let them go, Trunks," he said softly. "Those people are lost to us."

Trunks sunk to the ground, horrified. He tried to absorb the shock, but it was too much. "I can't, Goku," He said just as softly. "Those people were my responsibility."

Goku shook his head. "You aren't responsible for what Li Shenron and the others did. According to you, it's not my fault that they existed. Kami isn't here to answer for it, but it's really not his fault either, considering how many people we saved over the years with his dragonballs. You did the best you could. Let them go..."

Trunks was still beside himself. _I wanted to save those people..._ He dimly heard Goku asking Dende why the young Guardian hadn't healed Trunks. To Trunks, his wounds were of little consequence compared to the millions of people that were now permanently lost to them. Earth's dragonballs would not resurrect anyone after one year. Porunga was more flexible, but the Namekian Elder had told them that except for Nameks, the dragon would only bring back one person per wish after one Namekian year- about a third of an Earth year.

It was clear there was nothing to be done about it, though. They were lucky to have Shenron back at all, and Porunga couldn't grant their wish. It would be another third of a year until Porunga could be summoned again, and it would be too late to save any of the people lost in the last two years.

Goku shook him, and Trunks found himself staring into the older Saiyan's eyes. "You can't win every battle, Trunks. Let this one go. Remember when you told me I was being too good? That's you right now."

Trunks took a shuddery breath and tried to shut the door in his mind that lead to all of the victims of the shadow dragons. "How do you do it, Goku?" Trunks asked.

Goku's eyes were hard. "It's not easy. Most of Frieza's victims are still dead, including the other Saiyans. Buu destroyed hundreds of planets before he ended up in otherworld. Li Shenron's legacy could have been no less bloody. Sometimes, you have to be happy with what you have." He glanced at Dende. "Could you heal Trunks, as a favor to me?" He asked the young Namek.

Dende looked embarrassed. "No favor is necessary. Trunks wished many of my people back to life," he said as he laid his hands on Trunks and began the healing.

Trunks noticed Goku giving him a sly smile. "You're lucky Porunga was nice enough to transport their bodies here during one of the original wishes, otherwise I would have had to fish them out of the other Namek's non-existent atmosphere."

Trunks flushed in embarrassment. "That doesn't really happen, does it?"

Goku scratched his head. "We never really tried it out, but the dragons supposedly drop them back on the planet they died on, unless their bodies are moved."

"Mom told me Yamcha just appeared when they made the wish after Namek, and he was blown to bits. I just thought it should work the same way..." Trunks finished, stammering a bit.

Goku grinned. "I don't know about those things. I'd just keep it in mind, the next time you want to do something like that."

Trunks frowned. "I hope we never have to do that again."

Goku looked at him sidelong. "WE may not have to do it, but I know YOU will. The other dimension is likely to be a mess."

Dende frowned, finishing the healing. "What other dimension?" He asked curiously.

Trunks stretched, testing his wounded side, and shared a look with Goku. Goku nodded gravely. Trunks sighed, preparing to have to defend his idea, yet again. "You met the Trunks from the future, right?" Dende nodded. "Well, we have a time machine now, and it's likely that there have been problems there since he returned. I'm going to go there and do something about them."

Dende looked puzzled. "Did you summon Goku for this?"

Goku shook his head and answered for Trunks. "No, Dende. I'm not going on any more adventures. Vegeta is Earth's protector, now, and more than that, it's time the younger generation be allowed to take care of things. This is their world, now."

* * *

Trunks had his eyes closed, focusing on the energy of the planet. "That's good, Trunks," Goku was saying. "Feel the energy of all the life here, and draw it into your hands..." 

Trunks felt a tingling between his fingers, and when he opened them, a small ball of incandescent light was glowing there. It was slowly growing larger, but Goku had cautioned him earlier not to push too hard.

"This is the essence of the spirit bomb. The larger the planet, the more life on it, the stronger and larger it will be." Goku said, avidly watching the ball of light grow larger. "This technique can only be used once, as you are draining the life force around you. Small amounts can be easily recovered with time, but when you need a really large spirit bomb, you may kill the donors if you try to form more than one."

Dende looked transfixed. "This isn't normal energy, is it?"

Goku nodded. "The spirit bomb can only hurt those with evil in their hearts. Gohan withstood a hit from this when he was younger, but its reaction to Vegeta was a bit more like you'd expect."

Trunks felt the ball continue to grow, but as this was practice, he didn't want to draw any more from the lifeforce of Namek. "Can I let this go, now? I'd rather not weaken the trees the Nameks are trying to grow."

Goku blinked. "Oh, yeah. I learned this on King Kai's planet in otherworld, so the damage was negligible. Let it go, slowly."

As the energy dissipated, Trunks could feel it returning to the plants and animals that had donated it. Goku was nodding in approval when Trunks was done. "You learned that in just a few hours. That's impressive. You now have my two best techniques, and even if you're a little shaky when using them, I'm sure they'll help. Let's head back- I'd like to surprise Chi-Chi."

Trunks smirked as the spirit bomb was finally released. "I know you, Goku. You're hungry. Come back to my place and have dinner. My mom misses you as much as Chi-Chi does, and I'm sure your wife will be happier if the first thing she hears _isn't_ 'I'm hungry, what do you have to eat?'"

Goku's stomach picked that moment to let out a massive growl. He looked a bit sheepish. "Well, it's true that I haven't eaten in two years...sure, why not?"

Trunks started to feel for his mother's energy, but stopped abruptly. "Do you want to do the honors, Goku?"

Goku grinned. "I don't need the practice. You do it."

"Ok. Dende, do you want me to come pick you up later?"

Dende shook his head. "It was nice to see my people again, but it's time I was back home."

* * *

Trunks missed the Lookout during the instant transmission back, but he was only off a short distance. Goku had laughed at him, but told him similar things had happened when he first learned the technique. After leaving Dende, the two of them had teleported to Trunks' house, and were in the process of devouring bowl after bowl of rice, chicken, steamed veggies and miso broth. 

Goku's appetite was of course...excessive. Trunks wasn't far behind him, though, and the empty bowls began to pile up rather quickly. Luckily, his mother was keeping the catering crew from the party on to possibly be a permanent fixture. That suited Trunks down to the ground, as he rarely had time to make his own meals anymore.

Just as Trunks' appetite was starting to slow down, he noticed his mom coming down the stairs. _This ought to be good._

"Trunks, where have you been! And where did this mess come from..." Bulma began, but her eyes widened as she noticed Goku.

"Hi mom, sorry I was out for so long, but I did tell you I was going to be out for awhile," Trunks said nonchalantly, smothering a smile and continuing to eat.

"Ah, Trunks, how can you do that to your poor mother?" Goku asked with an almost full mouth, doing a bad impression of looking shocked.

Trunks grinned at him. "You shouldn't talk with your mouth full. Mom's been giving me a hard time the last few days. SHE didn't think I was doing anything important."

Bulma swallowed, opening and closing her mouth a few times before something came out. "Is he...?" She asked hesitantly.

"Yup," Goku said between bites.

"Are you...?" she continued, looking spooked.

"Nope," Goku answered again.

"You aren't staying?" Bulma shrieked at him.

Trunks chuckled as he finished a bowl of teriyaki chicken. "I told you not talk with your mouth full," He playfully admonished the older Saiyan. "Goku is back for good, Mom," The younger Saiyan said as he turned back to Bulma.

"Then why are you here demolishing my kitchen?" Bulma asked Goku with some asperity.

"I thought you might like to see him before everyone else got here, Mom," Trunks said blandly. "Gohan and the others should be here soon, so I offered Goku a meal while we waited."

Trunks could see his mother fighting to keep a smile off her face. _I knew you'd be happy to see him,_ Trunks thought as he helped himself to a bowl of steamed vegetables.

"Well met, Kakkarot."

Goku twisted in his seat to see Vegeta leaning against the doorframe at the entrance to the kitchen. "Hey Vegeta! It's been a long time!"

Trunks' dad was wearing a black shirt and jeans, yet was still an imposing figure. He walked over to the table and casually sat down, helping himself to a bowl of rice. "So, what brings you back to the land of the living, Kakkarot?"

Goku made a face. "Your overly clever son convinced me that I should come back."

Bulma blinked, but Vegeta was looking at Goku narrowly. "Really..." The Saiyan Prince said slowly.

"Yeah, I think you should ground him for sticking his nose into other people's business." Goku winked at Trunks to show that he was joking, though.

Vegeta grunted noncommittally and seemed to lose interest as he began to eat his rice bowl. Trunks noted that his Mom had forgotten her anger and was smiling at Goku. "I'm so glad you're back!" She said, ruffling his hair as if he were the little wild child she'd met so many years ago.

* * *

Goku and Trunks took a walk after they finished dinner. Goku had commented that he'd eaten enough to last him a year. Bulma had asserted that he would only be ok for an hour. Vegeta had been strangely silent, as if pondering something, and barely noticed them leave. Trunks would have been afraid of jealousy brewing there, but his dad simply wasn't like that. Everyone knew beyond a doubt that Goku and Bulma were just good friends. 

"Mom's in a good mood, now that you're back," Trunks commented quietly.

Goku smiled. "It's good to be back, although I get the feeling that you aren't as thrilled to see me."

Trunks smiled wryly. "I admit that I didn't miss you. You've never been as big a part of my life as in the others."

Goku looked hurt. "We had big adventures together! We spent a year gathering the Black Star Dragonballs!"

Trunks made a placating gesture. "You and I both know that we were doing a job. You needed me to fly and maintain the ship, and you were there to deal with the threats."

Goku smiled slyly. "That didn't stop you from getting close to Pan!"

Trunks blushed. "She wasn't supposed to come!" He protested weakly. "Goten was supposed to come with us so we could do fusion if things got out of hand."

Goku was still grinning. "See? It wasn't all business." His face hardened. "I want to know if you're angry with me, though. The truth?"

Trunks frowned. "I'm not angry with you, even if you did make me do most of the work during our trip for the dragonballs." He threw the older Saiyan a smile to take away the sting. "You weren't here, though, and I had to try and hold things together after you left. I guess I just assumed you were training in otherworld, and that I'd never see you again."

"I wasn't holding on to the memory of you, the way some of the others did," Trunks continued musingly. "You were gone, and I moved on...that's all."

Goku looked a bit downcast, and then looked back. "I'm sorry if I caused you trouble, Trunks, but I can't blame you for moving on. You did well...better than anyone could have hoped. I'll do my best to protect it while you're gone..."

Trunks made a slashing motion with his hand. "Quit that, Goku. I've never been that close to you, but the people that ARE need you. Goten needs you, Chi-Chi needs you, my mother needs you…even father needs you."

* * *

Gohan arrived first, and he brought Chi-Chi with him. Trunks had fun springing the surprise on his mom, but it would have been different to do that to the long-suffering Chi-Chi. 

_If only she didn't drive me crazy…_ Trunks thought wryly. It was hard to have sympathy for someone so obnoxious as the dark-haired princess.

Trunks watched the reunion from one of the balconies, feeling strangely detached from the whole thing, even if he could sense the overwhelming joy and relief felt by the people down below. Pan and Goten in particular seemed to be clinging to Goku as if he was going to disappear at any moment.

Trunks felt his father approach from the doorway behind him. "Quite a turn of events," Vegeta commented quietly.

Trunks continued to stare down at the happy group. "I hope you don't mind," Trunks said apologetically.

His father moved next to him against the rail. "I had long hoped for Kakkarot's return," came the surprising reply. "I was rather surprised that you were the one to initiate it. I well know your distaste for his childishness."

Trunks frowned at his father's insight. "You're right. I was offended that he never took me seriously enough to act naturally around me, but that's just the way he is. This isn't about me, anyway. This is about them," he gestured at the crowd of family and friends.

Vegeta sized him up. "Very mature of you. Is your ship ready?"

Trunks frowned. "Mom said she was going to outfit it today, but I didn't get to check with her."

"Good. I'm sure she did. You and I are going to train in space tomorrow."

Trunks turned a skeptical eye toward his father. _Just what I need- more broken bones,_ he thought grimly. "Yes, Father," he said in what he hoped wasn't an offensive tone.

_Whatever it takes..._


	14. Yesterday is a whisper

A/N: The first anniversary of the story, and the perfect chapter for such an occasion! I'm not writing this to appeal to everyone, but I'm grateful for the support and interest I've received so far.

Pan: "Blow out the candle, Trunks!"  
Trunks: "Why do I have to do it?"  
Pan: "You're the main character! You're supposed to do it!"  
Trunks: "You're a main character too! You should to it."  
Pan /looking steamed/ "You're impossible! Just blow the stupid candle out before it melts!"  
Trunks: "Why don't you just do it. It seems important to you."  
Pan: "Urg! Don't you know anything? The writer gave us this cake, and asked us to blow out the candle."  
Trunks /ponders/ "Ah! He said 'us,' as in, 'we'...let's blow it out together."  
Pan /grumbles/ "Ok, one...two...three!"

/Puff/

Pan /cheers/ "Yay!"  
Trunks /kisses Pan/  
Pan /blushes/ "Not in front of the audience!"  
Trunks: "Sorry. Author! Fade out, please!"

/fades out/

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/DBZ/GT and this is not for profit.

* * *

Chapter 14

* * *

_What a perfect day to compliment a perfect night,_ Trunks thought sarcastically. He'd been up most of the night, dreading the coming day. He'd finally given up in disgust at around five in the morning, and an hour later he had showered and dressed in loose-fitting clothes. He was having breakfast when his Father arrived. 

"Are you ready?" Vegeta asked quietly. It was still not quite sunrise, and it seemed Vegeta didn't wanted to wake anyone by speaking too loudly.

"I checked the ship. It's ready to go," Trunks said, tossing a capsule to Vegeta as he finished a bite of toast. He noticed that his father was also wearing unencumbering clothing. "Care for something to eat?" He was proud that his voice was steady and seemingly emotionless. His apprehension was almost enough to choke him.

Vegeta shook his head. "We shouldn't waste any time. I'd rather no one knows that we were gone at all."

Trunks raised an eyebrow. "You know people are going to notice us missing, so why bother hiding it?"

Vegeta scowled at him. "The only one who will know is your mother. I told Pan to stay away, and everyone will be visiting Kakkarot, anyway. Let's go before anyone has a chance to stumble over us."

Trunks nodded and rose to follow the older Saiyan, mystified by the need for secrecy. _This isn't like my father...he usually couldn't care less who knows what he's doing._ Even so, it made Trunks more hopeful about what was going to happen. If he was merely going to beat up his eldest child, he wouldn't have cared about an audience…he might even have insisted on one.

* * *

An hour later, Trunks was piloting the sleek prototype through earth's atmosphere. Because of the mishap with the Para-Para Brothers, Trunks had ordered Marron to make the ship as fast as possible. The cumbersome modified pod they had flown at the time was a snail compared to black-metal fighter Marron had designed. 

Vegeta was sitting next to him, eyes closed and radiating patience. Trunks had been told it was a habit from flying in a space pod for so many years. "So, where shall I set the course for, Father?" Trunks asked hesitantly.

The older Saiyan pulled out an optical chip, and tossed it to Trunks. "We're going to find some answers," Vegeta said cryptically.

Trunks inserted the chip into an access junction and downloaded the data. An autopilot program was contained within, guiding them to a desolate area of a nearby star system. The computer gave an estimate of three hours until they reached their destination.

"The last time I traveled there, it took 3 months to reach it. Who would have thought Cue-ball's child could have come up with ship like this?" Vegeta said as he absently stroked one of the bracing beams.

Trunks activated the autopilot program. "Well, not much to do until we arrive." Trunks said as he rose, stretching. "I'm getting coffee, do you want some?"

Vegeta shook his head, but he reached into a duffel bag that he'd brought along. "Put these on before we arrive."

Trunks' eyes widened at what he saw. It was the same type of combat suit and armor that Vegeta had favored before he'd become a higher level Super-Saiyan. "Umm...sure."

* * *

Trunks was enjoying a hot cup of coffee and relaxing when the twenty minute warning sounded. He grabbed the armor and suit that his father had given him, and quickly changed in one of the bedrooms. As much as he disliked wearing gloves when he fought, they were likely to be in an inhospitable planet soon, so he bit the bullet and switched out his shoes and put the gloves on. 

Trunks re-entered the control room to find his father dressed in similar armor and suit. They were approaching a dark planet that looked scarred from meteor impacts and volcanic eruptions. "What sort of answers are we going to find here?" Trunks asked, puzzled.

"Important ones," Vegeta replied, making it clear he wasn't going to say more.

As they approached, it became apparent that the planet was mostly dead, although it still had some breathable atmosphere. "Miserable place to train," Trunks commented.

"Nothing breakable," Vegeta replied bluntly.

Trunks set the prototype down gently on the uneven ground. As they disembarked, Vegeta gestured to Trunks. "Return the ship to capsule form. I'll hold it."

Trunks was beginning to get a inkling of an idea of what Vegeta was up to, but it didn't bode well for him. _He'll probably make me fight him until I can get the capsule back from him. _Fighting his father in a place like this made him shiver. There was nothing in the way that would give either cause to hold back. _Whatever it takes..._ He reminded himself.

Trunks handed to capsule to Vegeta, knowing that he was giving away his only means of escape unless he used instant transmission. He was hesitant to give that secret away, though. Only Dende and Goku knew he could use the technique.

Vegeta took the capsule and put it into a pocket in the armor. He sat down, looking around with almost a nostalgic air. Trunks sat down soon after.

"I trained here for days," Vegeta said unexpectedly. He ran a gloved hand through the fine black silt that covered the ground. "Some of this dust might even be the remains of one of the meteors I destroyed at the time."

"Why did you come here, father?" Trunks asked, bewildered. "And when?"

The older Saiyan chuckled. "A great irony, indeed. You were probably just born when I arrived here. I was training to become a Super-Saiyan, and I was at the final stages. I could almost taste it...but it was still out of reach. It was here that I found the final answer, and claimed my birthright...almost by accident, it seemed."

"Today, we're going to see the truth of our heritage..." Vegeta said, reaching into his armor again. Instead of the capsule Trunks had handed to him, he pulled out a thin box and flipped open the top. "Swallow this," he commanded as he handed Trunks something that looked like a medicinal capsule.

As Trunks looked at the gray capsule doubtfully, his father took another one out and swallowed it. "Well, don't be all day about it!" Vegeta said irritably. Trunks mentally shrugged and popped it in his mouth before he could think better of the notion.

Just as Trunks was going to ask what the capsule was supposed to do, he noticed something strange happening to his father. Then he felt a tingling in his skin, his hair and along his spine.

_What is this...?_ Trunks thought dimly as he felt bizarre sensations sweeping through him. Rage, fear, euphoria and a dozen other sensations came and went in the blink of an eye, gone almost before they registered. He could feel his nails changing inside his gloves, hotspots in places where he had been scarred, and most disturbingly, he could feel waves of tingling through his nerves all the way to the base of his skull.

Vegeta looked no less disturbed by what the pill was doing to him. He seemed to be trying to reach under his armor to scratch at his chest, and he was hunched over as if his stomach was bothering him. As Trunks looked on, he saw the most amazing thing, though.

His father was growing a tail.

Trunks reflexively felt at the base of his spine, and sure enough, a tail was growing there, too.

The strange sensations continued, and Trunks' tail was getting longer. After a short time, though, Trunks' body was rebalancing itself, and the sensory overload relented. He felt better than he had in years...more vital, flushed with a chemical mix that heightened his awareness and made him feel like moving. The tail made him feel unbalanced, but he could feel his body adapting to the new parameters.

Vegeta rose, looking his son over. "Are you recovered?" He asked in semi-politeness, shaking his head as if clearing a ringing from his ears.

Trunks hopped up, and promptly staggered a step. He closed his eyes, and attempted to find his balance. "Yeah...what was that?"

"I had your mother create them after the battle with Li Shenron. Nanotechnology designed to repair a body to perfect condition based on genetic structure. More importantly, it means tails for us."

Trunks was feeling off-kilter still, so things weren't registering correctly. "What do we need tails for?"

Vegeta looked him in the eyes, apparently trying to gage his disorientation. "The point is," He said slowly, enunciating each word, "it's the key to the final transformation."

Trunks just stared, feeling as if his jaw had dropped open. "But you said only pure-bloods could become Super-Saiyan 4!"

Vegeta's eyes were haunted. "We're going to find out, but I'm sure I was wrong...about a lot of things."

The Saiyan Prince tilted his head back, and suddenly Trunks felt an enormous energy surge coming from his father. Unleashed power raged around Vegeta as he rapidly transformed into a Super-Saiyan, and then higher to the next level and even higher as his hair began to lengthen and his body began to twist and expand as he reached the third level.

"Ahhhh!" Vegeta roared as his body changed yet again and his hair changed back to black and instead of his usual dark eyes, they were an unnerving blue. The raw power Trunks sensed was far beyond what they had both generated during the previous day's duel.

Vegeta took what looked to be a steadying breath, and then looked at Trunks. "We had your tail removed at birth, so you have no experience with the transformation thatSaiyansgo through when we are exposed to a full moon. I will do my best to keep you from hurting yourself as you try to gain control. We are of royal blood, and our birthright is to be in fullcontrol of ourselves when we transform."

Trunks frowned. "This place doesn't have a moon...how are you planning on triggering a transformation?"

Vegeta's eyes glinted with ironic humor. "Kakarrot may be a blockhead, but his father was a brilliant scientist. When he and my father were trapped on a planet, surrounded by superior forces, he came up with a daring move- an energy attack that had similar properties to moonlight. It was successful, and thus Kakarrot and I are both here today." The older Saiyan looked toward the sky. "Your mother added to that. She analyzed the data from the battle on Planet Tuffle, and with that information, I've altered the flare to act like flux waves. If you are able to transform, this will be the birthright of all other Saiyans born from now on."

Trunks breathed an inward sigh of relief. _I don't have to fight my father...and if this works, this may be the edge I need._ "I'm ready."

Vegeta looked at him approvingly. He jumped back and pointed his right hand straight up, powering up and glowing with a strange greenish glow. A blast flew up, and stayed stationary in the air, radiating the strange light. Trunks felt his hackles rise as a primal consciousness rose within him, stronger than when he'd become a Super-Saiyan 3. He could feel the blood within him boil, but it still wasn't enough. Nothing was happening.

"Raise your power as high as it will go!" Trunks heard his father say through the haze of the blood rage he was experiencing. He tried with all his might to focus on his energy and release it.

At first it was hard, but then the floodgates seemed to open, and the young Saiyan began to power up faster and harder than he ever had before. He dimly heard himself screaming incoherently, sounding bestial and savage, but he didn't remember even opening his mouth. He quickly went beyond the limit he pushed himself to the previous day, and with a sense of disconnection noticed that everything around him was getting smaller. _No...that's not right...I must be getting bigger..._

The sense of disconnection was getting stronger, and it seemed to Trunks that he was losing control to the more savage and primitive part of his mind. The urge to destroy everything around him was quickly becoming his only desire, and his attempts to stay focused seemed to be wasted as his thoughts were quickly replaced by instincts.

Panic began to set in as he realized that he was only slightly in control of his body now, and his consciousness was sinking fast into the dark void in the back of his mind. _I may never come back if I don't get control! I could be stuck like this permanently!_

Through the haze of the berserker rage, Trunks could see that he was lashing out indiscriminately at everything around him. Roaring at nothing, pounding the ground in feral fury...he was an undirected force of nature, with the power to destroy entire worlds. Perversely, he remembered the legend his father often repeated.

_"Three thousand years ago, one of our people became a Super-Saiyan, and no being could challenge him. He could only tap his power in his ape form, and eventually he destroyed himself...too primitive to control such a power."_

Trunks was sure this was what happened. _Goku might have ended up the same way, if not for Pan._ Pan had brought Goku to his senses with a familiar smell. _I'm not in the same straights as either of them. I'm still partially conscious, so I should be able to gain control somehow..._

A solid hit to Trunks' oversized head cut through most of the fog caused by the transformation. The young Saiyan felt a killing rage surge through him as he saw his father staring down at him in contempt, but Trunks used the pain to focus and regain control, and as he did, he felt his body changing again, growing lighter, and the objects around him seemed larger by the second. _YES! It worked!_

After a moment, Trunks felt about the right size, but found himself in a deep crater, lying on his back. "Sorry about that," Vegeta said insincerely as he pulled one of his gloves on tighter. "I assume you feel more rational, now?"

Trunks rubbed his head, but found no bruise. He felt exhilarated by the power he felt in his body, but he felt calm, too. "I'm all right. Thanks for knocking some sense into me," he added wryly.

"My pleasure," Vegeta said in dark humor. "So at last we have the answer. To think that I spent all my life fearing that clown Kakarrot was the Legendary Super-Saiyan. What an idiot I was."

Trunks was checking himself over to see the changes caused by his new transformation. He could feel his hair being much longer than the shorter cut he preferred, and his arms and legs were massively muscled now. "What are you talking about?" He asked absently.

Vegeta looked upset. "You take all of this for granted, don't you? You shouldn't have been a Super-Saiyan at all, let alone able to reach the final level!"

Trunks looked back, levelly. "Why not? Normal genetics states that half of each parent's traits are passed on. Not half of the power...half of the traits. I might have had no talent for fighting, but that's not how the dice were thrown. I got all of your fighting potential, and I got mom's technical genius. I don't ascribe my abilities to anything more than luck, but I do value them."

Vegeta huffed. "It figures that my son would see the basic problem." He sighed as he sat back down against a fragmented rock. "Our people always assumed our unnaturally high power was part of being a Saiyan. The fact that you can transform to the final level, not being pure-blooded, tells me that we were wrong."

Trunks was intrigued. "What are you getting at?"

Vegeta scowled. "Long did I ponder the meaning of our home world's destruction. No pure-blooded Saiyan females exist. Our race will disappear except in history, and even then, our race will fade away soon enough." His eyes looked distant, as if trying to see that not-so-distant future.

Trunks frowned. "What about our children? Surely the strong ones will be known to be of Saiyan lineage."

"That's the greatest irony of all. In a few generations, the word 'Saiyan' will be forgotten." Vegeta's tone was bitter, cynical. "The power of the Super-Saiyan isn't really Saiyan at all."

Trunks tried to fathom what his father was telling him, but it was still out of reach. "Didn't you say that all of the legends spoke of a 'Super-Saiyan'? Even on other planets?"

Vegeta laughed harshly. "That's because whatever species that intermarried with the Saiyan race was forgotten. It's likely that what Kakarrot and I did was not isolated. Just as we will infuse the Humans with a power beyond most of their race's comprehension, so did the legendary warriors that were undoubtedly our ancestors."

Trunks tried hard to keep from showing how stunned he was. His father, the "Prince of all Saiyans," was basically saying that everything he stood for previously had been a lie. "How does this relate to Goku, and the legendary Super-Saiyan?"

Vegeta spat angrily. "Frieza knew something was happening to our species. He sent us on the toughest assignments, but the Saiyans he sent just came back stronger. Each new Saiyan-child born was stronger than the last. I was born was a power greater than most of our elite forces. With a few rare exceptions like Kakarrot, there was a clear pattern of power gain that was leading to something. We always assumed that the legendary Super-Saiyan would be born soon, or that he had and his true power had not revealed itself."

"We were fools…I see that now. The Legendary Super-Saiyan had been the result of a simple roll of the dice, as you put it so well. His ascendancy had been a fluke, and we based our entire racial pride on that one instant of glorious supremacy. In a strange way, he doomed us all. Frieza wouldn't have destroyed our planet if that hapless fool hadn't transformed and scared the wits out of most of the creatures in the galaxy…so much so that we speak of him today, three thousand years later."

Trunks scratched his head. "I don't get it…if he wasn't a 'Super-Saiyan,' what was he?"

Vegeta's eyes flashed fire. "He was a throwback! None of us 'advance' to become a 'Super-Saiyan.' We regress! We return to the power that those nameless warriors, likely more than ten-thousand years dead, had!"

"What about the naturals, then?" Trunks asked curiously.

"The 'naturals,' as you call them, are the result of the change that comes over us. They are the children of those who have changed already. When we regress back to the power of the ancients, our bodies change, permanently. That change is at a genetic level." Vegeta was fuming. "It wouldn't be so bad, but our more recent ancestors choose to ignore the truth of what we are, and overstated our position in the evolutionary chain. The same thing will happen here. Someone like Hurcule will be named the true hero, a 'pure-blooded human,' even though he'll really be a Super-Saiyan…or whatever we really are."

"Our power will live on, and our children will be safe. What's more important than that, father?" Trunks asked, cautiously.

Vegeta's eyes focused alarmingly. "That reminds me…you and I are overdue for a chat about your girlfriend," he said in a deadly whisper.

Trunks' jaw really did drop this time. "What girlfriend?"

"That…" Vegeta's seemed to draw the word out like the blade of a knife, "would be part of the problem."

Trunks flushed in embarrassment. "I don't know what your talking about."

"Oh, really…I take it you fall asleep with girls like Pan in your lap often, then?"

Trunks turned beet red. "That was an accident…"

Vegeta smirked, interrupting his son's defense. "I'm sure it was on your part, but not hers. She was still awake, and dragged your sorry hide inside after you passed out. You're lucky your mother didn't check on you."

Trunks was flabbergasted. "You diverted her, didn't you?"

"Of course I did, or you would have woken up alone." Vegeta sighed, looking up at the stars. "Why are you putting her off? You've used every excuse in the book to stay away from her."

"She's too young…"

Vegeta unexpectedly backhanded him with surprising force. Trunks felt his lip, expecting to find blood there. "Don't lie to me," his father said menacingly. "I know you don't subscribe to the normal morals of humans. I raised you too well for that. You are a prince…act accordingly. Now do me the respect of an honest answer."

Trunks suddenly tasted bile. _How did he figure me out? Even Bra bought that one!_ Trunks spent a long time deciding whether to tell the truth, but eventually decided that his father would know if he was lying again, and would make it painful for him.

"It's unworkable," Trunks said bitterly. "Pan doesn't have the temperament to rule, and soon enough, that's what it's going to come to. Capsule Corp. is the only source of order on the Western Continent, and soon the Eastern Continent will be begging us to take over there, too."

"On top of that, she's not strong enough to come on this mission with us. That means at least two years of separation. If that weren't enough, Videl is openly opposing my attempts to court Pan." Trunks threw his hands up in frustration. "In every way, shape or form, it's unworkable. Why I was ever cursed with her presence in such a tantalizing fashion, I'll never know."

Vegeta chuckled. "Problems of the past. Pan has found her power, and I think you'll be surprised at the change in her disposition. You should take her with you."

Trunks looked at him suspiciously. "Why are you encouraging me with this? I'd get nothing but flak if I asked mom for help."

"Trunks, do you know how much time I've wasted in my life?" Trunks shook his head. Vegeta's eyes grew soft and angry at the same time. "I spent more than ten years ignoring your mother, and almost as much time ignoring you. That time is lost to me. TEN WASTED YEARS!" He shouted, chastising himself.

Vegeta stared up at the uncaring stars. "Don't make the same mistake I made," The older Saiyan said. "Tomorrow waits for us, but only for so long. Tomorrow becomes Today…Today becomes Yesterday. At that point, it's gone forever."

"Don't wake up ten years from now in an empty bed, in an empty house, wondering why you never paid attention to her. Seize the moment!"


	15. Calm before the Storm

A/N: I'm glad I designated Chapter 14 as the anniversary chapter, as I wasn't able to write this until now :D. I'd like to encourage people to leave tougher reviews, as I know this story has holes, and I need to be made aware of the ones I'm not seeing.

Nevertheless, I'm quite happy with the results so far. I started this story with only the intention of writing a good Trunks/Pan story, following the canon as closely as possible(some of the GT inconsistencies especially made it hard), and modifying some of the elements that I found in some of the better interpretations of the series.

This story has grown to have a life of its own, and it is my hope that it will grow into a viable "after GT" saga that could have been published and animated.

Lauraneato has been the guiding light that has kept this story moving and has helped to refine it at various points, and as such I'm naming her my honorary second muse for this. Continuous special thanks, Laura!

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragonball/DBZ/GT

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Chapter 15

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_So the legend was wrong...we've been living a lie this whole time. _

Trunks was abstracted, turning the stunning revelation around in his mind, trying to see all the angles. He started out the viewing window, not registering the view of the stars passing by as the prototype rocketed back to Earth.

At first glance, the knowledge that the Saiyan race's power had been boosted by the infusion of new blood by an unknown alien species millennia ago seemed irrelevant, but Trunks knew that it wasn't. _Every event in the universe is caused by other events. Nothing is truly disordered...merely misunderstood._ Trunks thought about how Goku, Gohan and his father had struggled to find the latent power within them, many times fruitlessly. _As father said, they had been going about it all wrong. They'd been trying to advance and become more sophisticated, but the sleeping power within them was primal and savage._ The more the Saiyans tried to rationalize the power, the further they were from the true essence of it.

"Father, does this mean that there was never a 'Super-Saiyan'?" Trunks asked the meditative Vegeta.

The older Saiyan flicked a hand in a dismissive gesture. "That he existed is fact. That he should be called a 'Super-Saiyan' is questionable. That there is a 'Super-Saiyan' destined to rise every three-thousand years is purest nonsense."

Trunks frowned. "So there's no chance that you, Goku or Gohan could be the legendary one?"

Vegeta snorted. "It's all random. If my Father had been a Super-Saiyan, and defeated Frieza, then he would have been declared to be the 'Legendary Super-Saiyan.'" The older Saiyan looked thoughtful for a moment. "If any of us could have been the Super-Saiyan of legend, it would have to be either Gohan or you. Gohan's power doesn't seem to have a known limit, and neither does yours."

"What about Goten?"

Vegeta laughed harshly. "He was certainly powerful, but your brother in all but name is not nearly as savage or cunning as you." He paused, seeming to consider something. "I take back what I said before. Gohan's hidden power is the closest thing we have to what was likely to be our ancestors' abilities. If the legend had been real, Gohan would have been the one."

Trunks took a moment to digest that. "So, we forget our heritage as Saiyans?" He asked disbelievingly.

Vegeta made a sharp negation gesture. "Regardless of how our people forgot about those who came before us, we must not make the same mistake. We will remember ALL of our ancestors, both Saiyan and the great warrior race that was forgotten. We honor their triumphs, while still recognizing their faults."

A silence fell between them as both were deep in thought. Trunks idly glanced at the controls to check their time until arrival. The computer calculated that they were just over two and a half hours away from Earth. _I have all I need, now. I should get Marron and go, tomorrow._

"I want your word on something," Vegeta said suddenly. "You will not reveal anything that happened here today. Not about our race, not your transformation...not even what I said about Pan. Also, you will not use the final transformation in any battle unless there is no other choice, and only if you are absolutely certain you understand your opponent's abilities completely."

Trunks couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I have a tail, now. People are going to notice that," The younger Saiyan pointed out. "Also, my power is much higher than before. It's going to be nearly impossible to conceal that I can become a forth level Super-Saiyan."

Vegeta frowned at him. "Extremely difficult, but not impossible. And you will have to do it. You'll have to keep your power suppressed, and you'll have to be careful not to show too much of abilities. In short, you'll have to act like Kakkarot when he's going incognito. I will not allow you to go if you do not give me your word to keep this secret."

Trunks sighed. He could already guess how much trouble this was going to cause, but his father was making sense. During their hunt for the black star dragonballs, many of the planets would never have allowed them to land if they knew that the three of them could easily lay waste to their worlds in relatively short order. Dr. Myuu might have had quite a different welcoming committee waiting for them on M2 if he'd known how powerful they really were.

"My word. I won't tell anyone about this. I'm only pledging not to reveal this until I come back, though," Trunks added. "My children deserve to know the truth about their heritage."

Vegeta relaxed. "Fine." His lip curled in his usual smirk. "Speaking of children, the capsule I gave you makes you infertile for three years." Trunks felt his jaw drop, and he could see a dark amusement in his father's eyes as a result. "Your mother and I didn't think you could keep your hands off of Pan for the entire journey, and I'm sure a child would be an unwelcome liability should some 'accident of judgment' occur." The older Saiyan reached into his armor vest and pulled out the thin container the nanobot capsules were in. He handed the case to Trunks. "The rest of these are the same as what I gave you. We only had enough time and resources to make eight."

Trunks opened the case to give his hands something to do while he tried to suppress a rising blush. _Did he have to be so blunt about it?_ He thought plaintively. He noted that there was space inside for ten medicine capsules, but there were only five inside. _Ok, two got used today...where's the third?_

"What are you planning on doing with Marron, given her instability?" Vegeta asked unexpectedly.

Trunks blinked at the change of topic. "I don't know yet. I don't even know what the problem is."

Vegeta made a displeased sound. "She may have the blood of that bitch 18 in her, but she's not like us. She wouldn't willingly risk her neck the way she has without the most powerful of motivations."

Trunks considered his father's assertion. He was again impressed with his father's ability to see a problem from a strategic angle. What would it take to make Marron "willing" to put her life on the line? "Desire or fear," Trunks answered absently.

Vegeta nodded approvingly. "A vague answer, but all motivation boils down to those two categories. Which do you think it is?"

Trunks thought about Marron's outburst at Capsule Corp. He clearly recalled her burning anger, bitterness and the bizarre look of longing on her face when he interrupted her daydream. Absent had been the kind of raw terror his father was suggesting until he'd mentioned Bebi. "It's not fear. She wants something in that other dimension."

Vegeta's eyes were narrow, but he offered no comment. Trunks took it as a nod to his insight, as the recalcitrant Prince rarely praised him when he accomplished something. Trunks shortcomings never received the silent treatment, however.

The silence stretched on, and before long, Trunks found himself nodding off. Before he could fall asleep in the cockpit, he made his way to one of the ship's sleeping rooms and dozed off, fully clothed.

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When the alarm sounded, warning the passengers of Earth's approach, Trunks shook off his impromptu nap and made his way back to the cockpit. Vegeta was elsewhere, apparently expecting the younger Saiyan to the legwork required to land the prototype. Trunks wasn't surprised, and even enjoyed flying the incredible machine back through the atmosphere in a controlled glide back to West City.

Vegeta returned to the cockpit soundlessly, dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt. It was clear from his body language that he was done "working" for the day. _I bet Mom will love that…_ Trunks thought idly, knowing that his temperamental mother would be upset that her husband was probably going to take a few days off. When he looked again, though, his father's eyes were sharp and alert.

Trunks frowned as he absently landed the sleek black fighter at their home. Other than the sleepiness that followed his transformation, he felt energized and focused…almost jittery. He remembered his new tail, and the fact that he hadn't changed out of the Saiyan fighting suit his father had given him. _This is not going to be easy to hide,_ Trunks thought glumly.

The two Saiyans disembarked, and Trunks absently capsulated the prototype. He shaded his eyes from the early afternoon sun. _Tomorrow…hard to believe how fast two days went._ He stretched, noting with distaste that he was covered with dried sweat, dirt and even some blood. He thought about heading off to the shower, but he settled for pulling off the space mercenary armor breastplate.

A light female voice called to them. "Trunks! Vegeta! Welcome back!"

Vegeta smirked as Bulma came to greet them. Trunks noticed that she was rather light on her feet, given her age. "Mom took the first capsule, didn't she?" He asked his father quietly.

Vegeta chuckled darkly. "She took one more than ten years ago. I'm surprised you didn't notice anything."

"How did it go?" The Lavender-haired inventor asked when she reached them.

Vegeta scowled slightly. "Your theory panned out," the older Saiyan grumbled. "Leave it to an Earth woman to discover the truth of our race's oldest legend."

Trunks' mom beamed at the compliment. She turned away from her husband and directed a glare at her son. "Now you be careful. You're not invincible, even with that tail of yours," She scolded him "I want you back in one piece, young man, and preferably married!"

Trunks grinned at her. "I'll see what I can do," he answered flippantly. When his mother's glare turned lethal, he held up his hands quickly. "I meant about getting married!" he added hastily.

Bulma's glare softened. "You'd better have!" She said without much less heat. She unexpectedly grinned. "If a shy and overprotected kid like Gohan can get an acceptable wife, you don't have any excuse," she asserted with laughter in her voice.

Trunks chuckled. "I suppose I don't have an excuse, when you put it that way." Trunks had a mental image of Gohan and Videl running around in those dorky costumes, making complete fools of themselves. "But I don't have a secret identity and a costume that's 'A super fit!'" The younger Saiyan said as he was doubled up with laughter, parroting Gohan's voice as "Saiyaman."

"Trunks!" Bulma admonished her son. She tried to look stern, even as she fought not to laugh herself. "That's not nice to make fun of poor Gohan!" A smile was creeping across her face, however.

"Tell me good citizens, have you seen anyone breaking the law lately?" Trunks continued to mimic Gohan's overly dramatic and excessively masculine Saiyaman voice. "Because if you have, I am here to put an end to their evil ways!"

Bulma was convulsed with laughter, but surprisingly, Vegeta looked grim. "Stop this immediately! This behavior is beneath you, and Gohan is undeserving of your mockery!" The older Saiyan said angrily.

Trunks stopped his recitation of the event, and looked his father over carefully. "I see someone is having a pang of conscience," Trunks said bitingly, realizing that his father was remembering the events at the Cell Games. "You could just apologize to him, you know."

His father gave him a death glare. "We wouldn't be here today if not for him. You would do well to remember that."

"I seem to recall that you said something like 'we honor their triumphs, while still recognizing their faults,' earlier today, didn't you?"

Vegeta looked taken aback, slightly. "How does that apply here?" He asked with much less venom in his voice.

"It applies because I am well aware of what he's had to bear, and what he's had to do." Trunks smiled again. "That doesn't mean he doesn't have an excessive taste for cheap theatrics and a completely screwed up idea of what makes someone 'cool.' On a side note, I beat up the bank robbers that day while he was busy practicing his weirded out postures and gestures."

Bulma couldn't take it. She was rolling on the grass laughing so hard that she couldn't breathe. "Videl…was…doing…exactly the…Hahahaha!" Bulma tried to say as he continued her laughing fit. Finally, she wiped the tears from her eyes and her shaking subsided. "I was out shopping for jewels with Majin Buu when Videl showed up one day doing that!" Bulma continued, still chuckling. "Buu captured the thieves before Gohan and Videl were done with their whole routine!"

Vegeta looked mortified. "That's the last time I stand up for Kakkarot's brat," He muttered to himself. "Who knew he was just as ridiculous as his father?"

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Trunks felt better after a shower and a change of clothes. It also felt good to be home with nothing to do for once, even if it was only for a day.

Despite his father's uncharacteristic outburst, he'd been a good sport about his family's mirth. Trunks understood that his father was probably just feeling the first hints of paternal worry, and wasn't quite sure how to deal with it. His mom knew all about it, though, and was making the most of the small time they had left before his departure.

Trunks was relaxing in his room when Bra stopped by. "Hey Bro!" She said as she invited herself in. "Give me some good news! Tell me I don't have to come with you tomorrow!"

Trunks grinned as she flopped on his bed. It was big enough that she didn't manage to fall on him in the process. "Ok. Not only do you not have to come tomorrow, you can't!" He paused for effect. "How's that?" He asked impudently.

Bra mock growled at him. "It depends on the reason!"

"Pan's coming with us. No more room!" He winked at his sister.

Bra's blue eyes widened. "She is SO not!"

"Cross my heart!"

Bra looked amused. "Cross my heart and what? Hope to get laid?"


End file.
